High School Baseball Playoffs : Costic, Monroe Upset Another Favorite, 5-4

Kevin Campbell summed up his feelings by answering a question with a question: “Who expected us to be here?” the Monroe High baseball coach asked.

“Here” is the City Section 4-A Division semifinals, and the answer is no one.

Banning was Monroe’s latest upset victim as Tim Costic belted a three-run homer in the eighth inning to give the Vikings a 5-4 win at Banning.

Monroe (11-16), which was 5-10 in Mid-Valley League play and had to win a tiebreaker to qualify for the playoffs, has won two consecutive extra-inning playoff games. The Vikings upset second-seeded Poly in eight innings Wednesday.

“We’ve got some kids who shouldn’t even be playing varsity ball, but they’re hanging in there and making some great plays,” said Campbell, whose club meets Canoga Park in the semifinals Tuesday.

Costic, who knocked in the game-winning run against Poly, did in Banning with his pitching and hitting.

The junior left-hander had not gone more than three innings since the preseason because of elbow problems, but he went the distance Friday, scattering eight hits and striking out three to even his record at 2-2.

And when he wasn’t shutting down Banning on the mound, Costic was lighting up Pilot pitchers. He tripled home Tom Konkel in the fourth inning to tie the score, 1-1, then unloaded his game-winning fifth homer of the year in the top of the eighth.

Monroe took a 2-1 lead in the sixth when, with two out, Brian Eldridge singled, stole second and scored on a single by Adam Clark. Banning tied the score with a run in the bottom of the seventh.

In the Monroe half of the eighth, Joe Marques led off with a single, Eldridge walked, then Costic picked on a 1-0 pitch and sent it over the fence in right-center.

Banning (17-9) retaliated with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth with one out, but Costic settled down to retire the side.

Norte Vista 14, La Canada 1--Norte Vista shortstop Greg Martineau slugged two home runs and Zac Arteche cracked a grand slam to highlight a seven-run fourth as the Spartans were bounced from the Southern Section 2-A playoffs.

Martineau was the Braves’ traveling man, walking three times and scoring five runs. And if that effort summed up Norte Vista’s outing, then the travels of Matt Whisenant illustrated La Canada’s.

Whisenant, the Spartans’ starting pitcher, was replaced by Jeff Kucera before he got an out. He was moved to right field, but didn’t stay there long. In fact, he changed positions twice more as La Canada was forced to rotate in more pitchers. He wound up at third base, a rarity considering he’s left-handed.

Things got so bad for the Spartans that when Greg Angeloni came to bat in the seventh, his team already down by 13 runs, teammates and La Canada fans rooted for him to get baseball’s equivalent of a hat trick: to strike out for the third time.

He did not disappoint, looking at the third strike.

The Braves (20-6) sent up 10 batters in the fourth, Arteche delivering the big blow with his seventh home run of the season.