2-A Baseball Playoffs : La Jolla Pitcher Surprises Carlsbad

Dick Huddleston, La Jolla High School baseball coach, said he had plenty of confidence in his choice of pitchers before Thursday’s San Diego Section 2-A quarterfinal game at Carlsbad.

Huddleston was being pretty adventurous, considering that his pitcher, Jorge Romero, had started one high school game in his life. That was against Clairemont, a team that finished second to last in the City Western League.

But Huddleston proved a sage. Romero, a senior, carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning and finished with a 4-hitter as La Jolla defeated third-seeded Carlsbad, 7-1.

La Jolla (21-7) plays Castle Park in the semifinals on Saturday at the University of San Diego. Carlsbad finished 21-5.

Romero (3-1) looked as if he were the team’s No. 1 pitcher. Carlsbad did not hit a ball out of the infield until the fourth inning.

La Jolla’s real No. 1 pitcher, left-hander Brent Woodall, was resting after pitching La Jolla’s 1-0 victory over Coronado on Tuesday.

So Huddleston opted for Romero, the regular third baseman who had pitched well lately after missing 12 games because of a severely sprained ankle.

Romero didn’t allow a hit until Reed Pippen singled to lead off the fifth. Pippen scored when Robert Wurster grounded out to second baseman Bryan Wilson.

“Jorge had them right where he wanted them,” Huddleston said. “I knew he could do it. He’s our secret weapon.”

Said Romero: “I thought they would go with someone else. I got a little nervous when they told me on Monday that I was going to pitch. I just went out and tried to hit the corners.”

One of the few bad pitches Romero made was in the first. A wild pitch almost allowed Brian Black, who had reached on an error, to score from third. But Romero raced in and took catcher Adam Lenain’s throw in time to tag Black out and end the inning.

Woodall was the next batter up and he hit a hanging curveball from Scott Karl about 350 feet over the right-field fence to put La Jolla ahead, 1-0.

Carlsbad had a problem with errors all season, but they never seemed to be in key situations . . . until Thursday.

Wurster bobbled the ball in center field after Lenain singled in the three-run third to allow Darren Kafka to score from first. Carlsbad made three errors, and each kept alive an inning in which La Jolla scored runs.

“We’ve had a couple of games like that before,” said Karl, who dropped to 8-2. “But we’ve always found a way to pull ourselves out.”