DIVISION 2-A BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : St. Augustine Rallies to Reach Final

SAN DIEGO â€”  St. Augustine hadn’t reached a San Diego Section baseball final in 31 years. And with one out in the first inning and the Saints already down four runs to El Capitan--a team that had already beat them by 13 runs--the prospect of ending that drought didn’t look promising.

But St. Augustine pitcher Marco Inzunza gave his team life by stopping any further damage in the first. The Saints’ batters, with an assist from some shoddy El Capitan fielding, then scored four runs in the bottom half of the first to tie it.

From there, Inzunza and his sharp-breaking curveball sapped the life out of El Capitan as the Saints went on to beat the Vaqueros, 8-5, Saturday in front of 1,110 at University of San Diego’s Cunningham Stadium.

Third-seeded St. Augustine (28-5) will play top-seeded Mission Bay (25-8) at 4 p.m. Wednesday at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium for the section 2-A championship.

Mission Bay drubbed Crawford, 11-0, to reach its second final in row. The Buccaneers were beaten by Grossmont, 3-0, in last year’s title game.

Inzunza (9-2) limited El Capitan to one hit in 4 2/3 innings. By the time he used up his allotted 10 innings for the week, St. Augustine led 8-4. Memo Lopez came on to pitch the last two innings to pick up his 10th save. Afterward, Inzunza was almost too excited to talk.

“I just can’t believe this happened,� Inzunza said. “It’s like a dream.�

It was like a bad dream for second-seeded El Capitan (22-12), which appeared to have everything going its way in the first inning. Five of the Vaqueros’ first six batters reached base off St. Augustine starter Pete Albers, and four of them scored--one came in on Saint errors, another on a Mike Leone double and two more on Sam Carlino’s double to left-center field.

The momentum swung when El Capitan second baseman Mike Lennon gave St. Augustine two extra outs in the bottom of the first. With one out, Eric Miranda reached when Lennon threw away an easy grounder. Two batters later, Lennon couldn’t come up with Lopez’s line drive.

Instead of three outs and no runs, St. Augustine had runners on first and third with two outs. Albers and John Mozerka followed with run-scoring singles, and Javier Pamus drove in another two with a single to right.

“We were just hoping to come back and get something,� St. Augustine Coach Mike Thompson said. “But they came out and played as tentatively as we did in the field.�

Thompson said he sensed his team would come back.

“The kids were very upbeat,� he said. “They thought they had something to prove. The last time we played these guys we had five guys out.�

St. Augustine took a 5-4 lead on a double by Lopez and an RBI single from Albers. Then the Saints broke it open in the fifth with three runs on four hits--Lopez, Mozerka and Chris Borunda had run-scoring singles.

In the opening game, Mission Bay never had a worry as it scored every time it batted against pitching-thin Crawford.

Mission Bay scored unearned runs in the first and second innings and broke it open with four runs in the third. Crawford starter Mark Gaske was touched for six runs, four earned, and six hits before leaving with two outs in the third.

“Once we got past Gaske, we knew they were in trouble,� Mission Bay Coach Dennis Pugh said.

Mission Bay shortstop J.J. Ibarra sensed trouble for Crawford in the second inning.

“You could hear them ragging on each other,� Ibarra said. “After they fell early, they weren’t into it much the rest of the game.�

Crawford (17-13) might have gotten into if it could have taken advantage of some early scoring opportunities. The Colts had two runners on base in the first, second and fourth against Mission Bay starter Jeff Dufek, but the key hit never came.

Eric Serrano delivered key singles for Mission Bay in the second and third inning--driving in three of the Bucs’ first six runs. Ivan Espinoza had two hits and two RBIs, and Ibarra had two hits, a stolen base and run scored.