Mission Viejo Outhits Diamond Bar but Loses

Ordinarily, when a baseball team gets twice as many hits as its opponent, it can count on a victory.

The Mission Viejo High School baseball team did just that in the Southern Section 2-A final at Blair Field Saturday, but the numbers in the run column added up to a 3-2 victory for Diamond Bar.

Even more painful was that Diablo pitcher Sean Campbell threw a three-hitter at the Brahmas, but it’s the run and not the hit totals that decide the winners.

“Campbell pitched the best game of his career for us,” Mission Viejo Coach Ron Drake said. “He pitched his heart out. He was a little off in the beginning, but then he settled down. He threw hard and had a good breaking ball.

“Campbell pitched like a good college prospect. Diamond Bar is a good hitting baseball team--they’ve been stuffing everybody this year.”

Campbell’s performance highlighted a frustrating evening for Mission Viejo, a team that managed to hit the ball well, but usually right at a fielder.

Mission Viejo did have six hits, but couldn’t string enough of them together to overcome the Brahmas.

Campbell, a 6-foot 3-inch senior, had two of those hits but it was his arm and not his bat that kept the Diablos in the game through the end.

“It’s frustrating,” Campbell said, “but I had an inning that I shouldn’t have had. I was really tense at the beginning. I was more relaxed as the game went on. My arm didn’t get tired today.”

The inning that annoyed Campbell was Diamond Bar’s second, when two walks, a single and a double accounted for all three Brahma runs.

The crushing blow was the double, a two-run slap to left field by Scott Faurot, the ninth batter in Diamond Bar’s lineup.

With runners at second and third with two outs and one run in, Campbell served up a fastball with little on it and Faurot, a left-handed batter, sliced it to left.

The ball sailed over the head of Ray Reinders, who seemed to be playing unusually shallow with two outs.

“I came in sidearm, but I threw it way too high,” Campbell said. “I went back to the dugout saying I should’ve thrown him a curve.”

Diamond Bar’s only other hit came in the sixth inning, a harmless single by shortstop Kraig Washington, but the Brahmas still managed to fend off the Diablos behind an impressive performance by their pitcher, John Gonzales.

The Diablos managed to get their bats around on Gonzales, but ahead 3-0, he didn’t have to offer the Diablos much to hit.

“Gonzales threw hard, low and in the strike zone,” Drake said. “He had as good of a slider as we’ve seen.”

With Gonzales throwing low, the Diablos found themselves pounding many balls into the ground. On the subsequent ground balls, the flawless Diamond Bar infield, led by shortstop Washington, gave Gonzales all the backing he needed.

The Diablos finally got to him for two runs in the sixth inning, but they used up their second through sixth hitters to do that. In the seventh inning, the bottom of the order couldn’t produce the tying run.

“I thought we could turn it around and tie it up or go ahead at the end,” Campbell said. “But it just didn’t happen.”

Not for any lack of effort on Campbell’s behalf.

Mission Viejo, third-place finishers in the South Coast League, finished the season 20-8.