Estancia Freshman’s Homer Upsets La Quinta

You might say Paul McDaniels of Estancia High School is a quick learner. He certainly wasted little time on Friday in the Southern Section 3-A baseball playoffs.

In just his third at-bat on the varsity level, McDaniels, a freshman, taught senior pitcher Mike Wilson of La Quinta a lesson: No more fastballs.

McDaniels’ three-run homer in the fifth inning erased a 2-0 deficit and led Estancia to a 4-2 victory that ended La Quinta’s 20-game winning streak and eliminated the top-seeded Aztecs.

“I was a little intimidated by Wilson’s record (10-2), and he threw hard,” said McDaniels, who was called up to the varsity for the playoffs after spending the season on the junior varsity. “But he’s just another pitcher.”

Wilson just happened to be 10-1 with a 0.98 earned-run average entering Friday’s game and will play for the University of Arizona next season. But by his third at-bat, McDaniels was over being awed.

“I noticed during my first two at-bats that he always started me with a fastball, so I just started looking for it,” McDaniels said.

He got one on a 2-1 pitch, hitting it over the right-field fence to turn the game around.

Until that point, Wilson had controlled the game. He had a no-hitter through four innings and had not allowed a ball to be hit out of the infield.

However, Wilson got off to a poor start in the fifth, allowing consecutive singles to Dave Westman and Mike Lewis. Still, Wilson appeared to have worked out of the trouble when Kent French popped into a double-play on an attempted sacrifice bunt.

But Wilson hit Dan Dougherty with a pitch, bringing up McDaniels, who hit .450 for the junior varsity this season.

“We haven’t been hitting well lately, so we decided to stick him in there and see what happened,” Estancia Coach Ken Millard said. “You get desperate.”

Desperate describes Estancia’s play during the first inning when La Quinta scored two unearned runs.

With two out, Mark Dion walked, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. After James Marquez walked, John Park hit a ground ball to third baseman Frank Herman, whose throw was wild, and Dion scored the first run.

La Quinta loaded the bases on a walk to Jason Parson. Park then intentionally strayed too far off second base drawing a throw from Westman, the catcher. However, his throw went into center field, and Marquez scored.

“We worked the delay steal, guessed right on a squeeze bunt, threw runners out stealing and basically did everything right,” La Quinta Coach Dave Demarest said. “And one home run neutralized it.”

Conrad Colby (7-3) pitched a 4-hitter, striking out 6, for the victory.

Estancia will play El Toro in the second round Tuesday.