Lions Tournament : Rees Has Big Day Pitching and Hitting for Mission Bay

For Sean Rees, the A division semifinals and final of the Lions baseball tournament Wednesday at Mission Bay High School turned into a personal highlight film.

In Mission Bay’s 3-1 semifinal victory over La Jolla, Rees pitched a one-hitter and went 1 for 2 at the plate.

He bettered himself in the final with 4 hits--including 2 home runs--4 runs scored and 4 RBIs as Mission Bay beat Escondido, 16-4.

In the fifth inning of the semifinal, Brad Tecca, the ninth hitter in La Jolla’s lineup, pushed a twisting bunt up the first-base line that Rees let roll.

“I thought for sure it was going to go foul,” Rees said.

It didn’t, and Rees, a senior left-hander, had to settle for a one-hitter and his fifth victory without a loss.

“I just wanted to throw hard and do the best I could,” Rees said. “I wasn’t thinking no-hitter or one-hitter or anything. These guys can hit. They scored, what, 52 runs in the last three games?”

La Jolla (10-3) had won by scores of 27-1, 12-2 and 13-1 in the tournament.

As Mission Bay’s leadoff hitter in the final, Rees opened the game with a long home run to left field. He hit an opposite-field two-run home run in the second and added singles in the fourth and fifth.

“I was hitting about .482, but I went 0 for 4, 0 for 3 and 1 for 4 in the last three games,” Rees said. “But I came out of it today. I just relaxed and put more weight on my back foot and drove into the ball. I felt real comfortable and I’m seeing the ball real well.”

As were most of the Buccaneers.

After Rees’ homer, Mission Bay scored eight more runs in the inning. Tony Lennan had the big blows with a two-run homer down the right-field line and a two-run triple later in the inning.

The Buccaneers added four in the second inning and Darren Sesslar picked up his first victory of the season with 4 innings of relief. The game was called with Escondido (6-6) down by 12 runs after six innings.

“I’m real happy with the way we’ve played,” said Dennis Pugh, Mission Bay coach. “You can’t be unhappy at 12-0-1. In my wildest imagination, I didn’t think we’d be 12-0.”