State Community College Baseball Tournament : San Diego Mesa Loses to Long Beach

San Diego Mesa College’s bid to continue through the loser’s bracket of the State community college baseball tournament was stopped Sunday morning.

The Olympians, who lost their opening game and staved off elimination twice, were defeated by Long Beach City College, 6-1, at Blair Field.

The loss in the double-elimination tournament concluded San Diego Mesa’s most successful season in the team’s 22-year history. The Olympians (35-8) set a school record for victories and were making their first appearence in the tournament.

“I’m not sad because of the loss,” San Diego Coach Eric Swanson said. “I’m emotional because this was the finest group of players in talent and in other things I’ve ever coached and I can’t tell them when their next game is.”

Both teams played three games in two days going into Sunday. San Diego Mesa started sophomore right-hander Dean Wilkins, who pitched in two games.

Wilkins (13-6) failed to get an out in the fourth inning, when the Vikings scored five runs. He took the loss.

It was his throwing error on a bunt that keyed the inning.

With two runners on, Dave Spencer bunted back to Wilkins, who threw the ball over the first baseman’s head and out of play, allowing one run to score.

After the error, sophomore left-hander Jeff Oswalt replaced Wilkins with runners on second and third. Oswalt’s first pitch was bounced into left field by Frank Bennett to score two runs.

Meanwhile, Long Beach City starter Kevin Sherman was keeping San Diego Mesa under control.

The 5-foot 11 inch, 135-pound right-hander ended up throwing a three-hitter. The complete game was Sherman’s first of the season. He is 3-3.

Sherman allowed two hits in the first inning but didn’t give up another until the eighth.

Jim Pritikin singled to open the game for San Diego Mesa, stole second and went to third on a one-out single by Robert Fletcher. Pritikin scored on a throwing error by Long Beach catcher Mike McCarthy.

Long Beach City (26-13) tied the game in the second on a two-out double by John Eldred and an RBI single by Spencer.

San Diego Mesa, the Pacific Coast Conference champion, had advanced to the tournament by sweeping Orange Coast College, two games to none, last weekend in regional play in San Diego.

On Friday, the Olympians lost the opening game of the tournament to San Mateo, 9-3, before later defeating Merced, 15-3. San Diego had advanced to Sunday’s game with a 7-6 victory over Sacramento City.