San Diego Prep Baseball : Mira Mesa Cheers Itself Up, Wins

Mira Mesa’s bench must have known something would happen when everyone on it stood up in the top of the fourth inning at Morse High and cheered leadoff hitter Mike Eicher.

The game was scoreless, but Eicher changed that by hitting Joel Lager’s first pitch deep to left field for a home run. There is no left field fence at Morse and the ball, after traveling about 350 feet in the air, rolled another 150 feet.

The Marauders scored five more runs in the inning and went on to an 8-1 City Eastern League victory.

Mira Mesa, alone in first place, is 2-0 in league and 10-10 overall. Morse is 1-1, 10-9.

“When the bench started getting into the game we really got pumped up,” winning pitcher Eric Estey (1-3) said. “Then Eicher hit a shot all the way to the dirt.”

Mira Mesa, the defending 3-A champion, has defeated City East opponents, 23-2. It beat Serra, 15-1, Friday in its league opener.

“We are playing very intense right now,” Coach Larry Elliot said. “We used our nonleague games to find out who the team would be. Today we had good defense, and Eric pitched well. He was cutting his fastball and spotting it.”

Lager (4-3) gave up only one hit until the fourth, when he was shelled for the six runs on five hits and two Tiger errors. Mark Robert capped the inning with a three-run triple.

Elsewhere in the City Eastern League:

Serra 9, Point Loma 2--Tim Finn (6-1) pitched a two-hitter and Chuck Pierce had three hits as the Conquistadors (1-1, 13-5) bounced back from their league-opening loss to Mira Mesa by beating the No. 6-ranked Pointers (1-1, 12-4) at Point Loma.

Madison 4, Patrick Henry 1--Scott Andersen allowed only three hits and Dennis Legenza hit a solo home run in the first inning as the Warhawks (1-1, 7-6) defeated the No. 10-ranked Patriots (0-2, 9-5) at Patrick Henry.

CITY WESTERN LEAGUE Mission Bay 4, Kearny 0--Scott Vonderlieth pitched a complete-game two-hitter and struck out 12 to lead the No. 7-ranked Buccaneers (5-2, 12-5) past the Komets (3-4, 5-10) at Kearny. Sean Reese had a two-RBI double and Rusty Filter had two hits as Mission Bay maintained its one-game lead in league.

University 4, Clairemont 3--Pat Justiniano and Pete Hawes had RBI singles in the bottom of the fourth to key a come-from-behind win for the Dons (4-3, 8-8). Rene Acosta had a triple for University. Mike Eggleton got the win. Clairemont fell to 2-5, 5-9-1.

La Jolla 2, University City 1--Left-hander Jason Todd pitched a one-hitter to lead the Vikings (4-3, 6-10). Brad Ledwith of University City (3-4, 6-9) held the lead until the fifth, when Mark Alray drove in the tying run with one of his two hits.

AVOCADO LEAGUE San Pasqual 6, San Marcos 5--Keith Nichols’ RBI single in the top of the sixth inning snapped a 5-5 tie and gave visiting San Pasqual (1-3, 6-7-1) its first league victory. The No. 8-ranked Knights fell to 3-2, 8-6.

Escondido 8, Oceanside 3--Arnie Spiker pitched a complete-game four-hitter and hit a three-run home run to help the Cougars (2-2, 9-8) past the Pirates (3-2, 8-7) at Oceanside. Escondido’s Joe Perry hit a two-run home run in the first.

Ramona 10, El Camino 2--David Rowe had four hits and drove in four runs as the Bulldogs (3-1, 8-4) moved into a tie for first place with a win over the Wildcats (0-4, 3-11) at Ramona. Shawn McConaughy pitched the first five innings to pick up the win.

PALOMAR LEAGUE Orange Glen 3, Fallbrook 2--Scott Carlovsky’s RBI-single in the sixth made the difference as Orange Glen (3-1, 10-5) beat the No. 4-ranked Warriors (2-2, 14-3) at Fallbrook. The Patriots took the lead on Frank Escalante’s two-run home run in the third.

Poway 5, Torrey Pines 3--The Titans (3-1, 10-5) won their fourth consecutive game and retained a share of second place one game behind Mount Carmel by defeating the Falcons (1-4, 3-12) at Torrey Pines.

CITY CENTRAL LEAGUE Lincoln 8, San Diego 4--Keith Mitchell’s bases-loaded triple with two out in the sixth inning snapped a 4-4 tie and kept Lincoln (3-4, 11-8) alive in the league race. San Diego (4-3, 8-10) suffered its third straight league loss.

Hoover 13, Christian 3--An eight-run sixth-inning led the first-place Cardinals (6-1, 9-6) past Christian (2-5, 8-9-1). Hoover’s Ty Murphy was 4 for 4. Winning pitcher Jake Tyseling went 2 for 4 with two RBIs.

St. Augustine 6, Crawford 5--The Saints (2-5, 5-11) snapped a four-game losing streak with a win over the Colts (4-3, 8-8) at Crawford.

NONLEAGUE Vista 12, Carlsbad 0--The Lancers (7-8) may have been beaten by the Panthers (8-6) at Vista but it was hardly a bad day for Carlsbad. When Avocado League foes San Marcos and Oceanside lost, Carlsbad moved into a first-place tie with Ramona in league.