High School Roundup : Mission Bay Finding Ways to Keep Winning

Mission Bay High is trying to figure out how to win baseball games without pitcher Sean Rees, a four-year starter who dominated the City Western League before graduating last June.

On Tuesday, the Buccaneers learned luck can be a good substitute for a good fastball, parlaying three hits into seven runs to defeat visiting St. Augustine, 7-3, in the Hilltop-Moose tournament.

Luck? Mission Bay pitcher J.T. Thomas yielded nine hits to the Saints but came out with a complete game and his second victory (the team’s fourth) against no losses.

Thomas had five strikeouts, but he wasn’t the whole story. Mission Bay also had good fortune on its side.

It was apparent in the first inning. After scoring a run, the Saints continued to threaten with runners on second and third. Until, that is, Juan Lopez swung through a pitch on a suicide squeeze, turning Brad Gennaro, who was heading to the plate, into a dead duck.

Thomas then struck out both Lopez and Jason Alcoser to end the threat.

“That’s the way we play,” St. Augustine Coach Mike Stephenson said of the attempted squeeze. “And this is the first time it’s hurt us.”

One Saints player who lost his concentration, according to Stephenson, was Gennaro, the starting pitcher who is 1-2. Gennaro only gave up two hits through 2 1/3 innings but also yielded four walks, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch. St. Augustine committed four errors behind him, all in the second and third innings and all leading the Mission Bay’s seven runs.