Mesa All-Stars run out of steam

FULLERTON — The trains, running nearby and parallel to the right-field line, deafened the crowd, the chatter between baseball players.

The latter is the last thing Costa Mesa Manager Kirk Stone wanted during an elimination game against La Mirada Friday night at Amerige Park.

Costa Mesa needed to communicate. He’s seen his all-star team fall apart before in the 13-year-old Pony District Tournament in Fullerton.

Not again he said to himself. Stone figured the trains weren’t going to derail, but what about his players?

Already down five runs going into the last inning, Costa Mesa needed a bizarre train of events. Stop those trains. Any momentum built before, he saw end with the roars coming from those darn trains.

String together some hits. Costa Mesa did, scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh, but with no outs and a runner on third, Stone’s face went stone.

No sight of trains, but Costa Mesa left the tying run at third, losing, 7-6, and ending its season.

Afterward Stone looked proud of how Costa Mesa fought back.

Before the game, he delivered the same speech after his team played Fountain Valley in the second round. Fountain Valley handed Costa Mesa a 14-4 mercy-rule loss in five innings, putting Costa Mesa in a precarious situation of having to win every game to stay alive and advance to the regional tournament.

“Can you guarantee to me that you will not quit and that you’ll never give up, that you’ll always try your hardest and stay in the game no matter what,” Stone said to his players.

Every one of them raised a hand, saying, “Yes coach. I’m in.”

The adrenaline carried over to the first inning, with Costa Mesa taking a 1-0 lead. But the advantage ended when La Mirada starter Grant Escobar began handcuffing Costa Mesa.

For six innings, the crafty left-hander pitched himself out of jams.

The only other run he allowed before entering the seventh was in the third, when Jared Peña drove in a run with a double to left-center field that cut the deficit, 3-2.

Then seconds later those trains rolled through again, taking Costa Mesa’s steam away. Costa Mesa stranded runners on the corners.

No trains in the seventh, until Escobar doubled and scooted home to score the eventual game-winner. He would say later that he thought La Mirada wouldn’t need an insurance run.

It did with what Costa Mesa accomplished in the bottom half of the inning.

Like the trains carried freights, Costa Mesa began to get on board. The first, Alex Trancoso, who went three for four, singled and chased Escobar. A new pitcher, another lefty in Andy Granajo, but this one wasn’t as successful.

He walked the next two batters, Peña and Kevin Carvajal, loading the bases. J.T. McLuckey unloaded them with a triple down the right-field line. With the right fielder playing toward center, all three runners scampered home, cutting La Mirada’s lead, 7-5.

“We just went up there trying to swing [for hits],” said McLuckey, who went two for four.

Another pitching change resulted in Escobar to worry a bit because McLuckey made things closer.

Then AJ Goldfarb greeted Troy Nelson by smashing a double over the center fielder’s head, making it a one-run game. Nelson, a right-hander, made sure Goldfarb wouldn’t go far and that his team would be playing another loser-out game today.

With the infield playing in, Nelson got the next batter to hit a weak grounder toward the mound. One out. The next batter popped up in front of home plate and Nelson let the catcher glove it. Two outs.

Five pitches later, he struck out the next batter swinging. Just like that, his La Mirada teammates mobbed him in time before the trains disrupted their celebration.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].