3-A Baseball Playoffs : Klemaske Hangs On; Mt. Carmel Wins, 3-0

Joey Brownholtz’s mother, Dale, came to see the Mt. Carmel High School baseball team play Chula Vista in the San Diego Section 3-A quarterfinals Thursday, but she had no desire to see her son on the field.

Brownholtz, Mt. Carmel’s ace pitcher, wasn’t scheduled to start against Chula Vista because he was coming off a victory in the Sundevils’ first-round victory over Bonita Vista Tuesday.

Another who didn’t want to see Brownholtz was Byron Klemaske, who started. Despite trouble in three innings--and with Brownholtz warming up in each--Klemaske held on and pitched Mt. Carmel to a 3-0 victory and a spot in Saturday’s semifinals at Grossmont College opposite top-ranked Helix.

“Byron was a hitter away from coming out two different times,” Mt. Carmel Coach Sam Blalock said.

But to Dale’s delight, Klemaske kept making the pitches when he had to. And her son stayed in the bullpen.

Leading, 3-0, Klemaske issued back-to-back singles to Joe Heinz and Carlos Pedroza to start the second inning but escaped trouble by picking pinch-runner Vince Zoni off second base before the Chula Vista rally could continue. Brownholtz, who was up throwing, sat back down.

In the third, Chula Vista put runners on first and third with no outs, but Klemaske struck out Shawn Miranda, got J.J. Rodriguez on a grounder to third and struck out Eric Slinkard. Again Brownholtz sat.

In the fifth, Brownholtz was up again when Klemaske walked Willie Bleisch and Alex Garcia with one out. When Klemaske fell behind Miranda, 3-1, Brownholtz was just a pitch away from entering the game.

“Not with the bases loaded, I didn’t want to see him,” his mother said.

On the next pitch, Miranda hit a ground ball to third and Mark VanAelstyn, who stepped on the bag and threw to first for an inning-ending double play. Brownholtz was down for good.

Mt. Carmel, the defending section 3-A champion, scored two runs in the top of the first inning on a run-scoring double by VanAelstyn and an RBI single by Eric Olander. In the second, Marcus Lee was knocked down by Chula Vista pitcher Anthony Garcia but got up and, two pitches later, homered to right to make it 3-0.