Newark Pitches 4-Hitter : Junior’s Performance Leads Santana Past Torrey Pines, 4-0

Starting immediately, Santana High School’s baseball coach, Jim Saska, may want to make adjustments to his team’s pregame diet: Chinese food for everybody.

It worked perfectly Tuesday for Santana junior Paul Newark, who left school early, polished off some chicken chow mein, egg rolls and sweet and sour chicken, and then dished up a 4-0 shutout against host Torrey Pines in a first-round 3-A playoff game.

“I used to do it before every game when I was 12 years old,” Newark said of his superstition. “But today is the first time this year I’ve done it.”

Newark scattered four singles for No. 9 Santana (21-7) and did not allow No. 7 Torrey Pines (21-5) more than one hit per inning.

“I felt in control the whole way,” said Newark, who is 6-feet tall and weighs 205 pounds. “I’ve been running so that I can go the full seven innings, and today I felt stronger during the last couple of innings than in the first. The first part of the game was the toughest.”

The beginning was also the toughest for Torrey Pines pitcher Aaron Mirandon. Santana scored three runs in the first inning and added the fourth in the second.

Mirandon’s trouble began when John Barnhill, who improved his average to .455 by going 1 for 2 with two walks, led off the game with a single and moved to second on Bruce Moutaw’s single. Barnhill and Moutaw each advanced a base on Tim Barry’s sacrifice. Barnhill scored and Moutaw took third on Darrin Forster’s sacrifice fly to left.

With two out, Barry O’Gorman hit a grounder to third, but third baseman John Lynch’s throw was wild, allowing Moutaw to score. Newark followed with a single, sending O’Gorman to second, and both advanced a base on a wild pitch. Jason Cabral followed with a single to drive in O’Gorman.

Torrey Pines never recovered. Mirandon allowed just one hit over the final six innings, but he uncorked another wild pitch in the second, allowing Barnhill to score from third.

“I don’t know what happened,” Mirandon said of the first two innings. “I’ve started out slow in the last couple of games I’ve thrown. My forkball wasn’t working in the first couple of innings, but I’m usually able to get away with my other two pitches (curve and fastball). I thought once we got a run, everybody would pick up.”

The Falcons got their leadoff man on base via a walk in the second, third and fourth innings, but failed to produce that run.

“We just didn’t execute,” Frank Chambliss, Torrey Pines coach, said. “We were trying to bunt the runners over, but our guys didn’t get the bunts down.”