2-A Playoffs : Mission Bay, Castle Park Belong in Final

No upsets here. When No. 1-seeded Mission Bay and No. 2 Castle Park high schools meet at 4 today for the San Diego Section 2-A baseball championship, it will be strength against strength.

Mission Bay (24-3-1) beat San Pasqual, 4-0, and then edged University of San Diego High School, 2-1, in a semifinal Saturday. Castle Park (25-4-1) defeated Hoover, 13-6, and then eliminated La Jolla, 6-4, in a semifinal.

“They’ve been rated at the top all year long,” Castle Park Coach Bob Korzep said of Mission Bay. “They’re a premier team.”

Dennis Pugh, Mission Bay coach, said of Castle Park: “I was very impressed with them (Saturday). They’ve got good team speed, and I was impressed with their pitching.”

Both teams feature a potent offense, good defense, and a confident, hard-throwing right-handed pitcher. The difference being that one of these pitchers may not start today at the University of San Diego.

Sean Rees, who pitched 1 innings and earned the save Saturday, is fresh and will start for Mission Bay. But Castle Park’s Juan Beltran pitched a complete game Saturday and, as of Tuesday, Korzep was not sure if Beltran would be ready.

“In the big leagues, guys pitch every four days,” Korzep said. “But I don’t know if a high school kid can go all seven innings four days later.”

Korzep said Beltran will pitch at some point today. Others who may pitch for Castle Park are Cesar Gutierrez (3-1) and left-hander Joe Carrillo (3-1).

Mission Bay, however, isn’t as healthy as Pugh would prefer. First baseman/outfielder Tony Lennan and catcher Tommy Lafever both missed Saturday’s game and are doubtful for today. Lennan has a severely sprained ankle and Lafever has a deep thigh bruise.

As a result, Tony Enomoto has been moved from second base to catcher and Brandon Farley has moved from the outfield to second base.

The biggest difference between the teams is experience.

Mission Bay has played in three 2-A title games since 1980. Two years ago, the Buccaneers beat San Marcos, 3-0. In 1984, they lost to Clairemont, 11-6, and in 1980, Mission Bay lost to USDHS, 4-3, in 13 innings.

“We take a lot of pride in our program,” Pugh said. “The championship has been the kids’ goal since last summer.”

Castle Park has never played in a section championship. But Korzep isn’t worried.

“The kids have planned on getting here all year long,” he said. “You don’t know how the kids will react until they’re in a situation, but I don’t think we’ll be intimidated because we’ve wanted to be here.

“I think the kids feel they have something to prove. Throughout the years, other parts of town haven’t given the South Bay teams much respect.”