Southern Section 3-A Baseball : Rio Mesa Gets a Good Win, and a Championship

Oxnard Rio Mesa High School, executing with near perfection, defeated Lompoc, 9-1, Friday night in the Southern Section 3-A baseball championship game at Anaheim Stadium.

In last year’s 3-A final, Lompoc lost to Anaheim Canyon, 2-1.

This time, Rio Mesa pitcher Craig Good was too good for Lompoc. Good ended up pitching pitching a five-hitter and going the distance.

Although flu and a bad elbow sidelined Lompoc’s top pitcher, Ron Osborne, both coaches said it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

Rio Mesa’s Pat Machado said: “It wouldn’t have made a difference to us. I knew we were going to hit the ball.”

Lompoc Coach Dan Bodary, in his sixth final, said: “I don’t think it made any difference. They hit the ball very hard today.”

Osborne’s replacement, Benny Gonzales, was knocked around for seven runs in four innings. But he was hurt more by mental errors and walks than by the Spartans’ bats.

It was 3-0 when four runs in the fourth inning broke the game open. Actually, Gonzales could have easily escaped the inning with minimal damage.

Two walks and a single loaded the bases with one out, bringing up Rio Mesa’s leading hitter, Javier Alcaraz.

Alcaraz followed with a perfect double play ball to the hole at shortstop. Only problem was that Lompoc shortstop Damon Scarborough was hovering near second, trying to bird-dog the runner. So instead of being out of the inning, Lompoc trailed, 5-0. Then Rio Mesa added two more runs on a sacrifice fly and an errant pickoff throw.

Good’s only real trouble came in the third. Lompoc put its first two batters on, and catcher Dale Craig attempted to sacrifice. But his bunt went right back to the pitcher, who fired to third to get lead runner Scarborough on a close play.

Rio Mesa finished the season 27-3; Lompoc finished 23-6.