Wilson Defeats Narbonne to Advance to Quarterfinals

Amid the turmoil of the Los Angeles teachers’ strike, the City 3-A baseball playoffs went on as scheduled. Unfortunately for the Narbonne Gauchos, they never got their bats and gloves to work and were eliminated by the Wilson Mules, 7-0.

Wilson’s Luis Mendoza (5-0) threw a complete game and allowed only three hits as the Northeaster League co-champions advanced to the quarterfinals to face the winner of the South Gate-Fairfax game.

The shutout improved Wilson’s record to 17-4, while Narbonne ended the season at 9-14.

The visiting Gauchos went down in order to begin the game and then allowed 10 Wilson players to bat in the bottom half of the first, allowing four runs.

“They scored four runs in the first inning and the ball never left the infield,” said Narbonne coach Nick Van Lue. “They got some infield hits and we didn’t make the plays.”

In the second inning, Wilson right fielder Azar Yaver reached first base on a throwing error and moved to second on a Cesar Rubio grounder that was booted.

Yaver then reached third on a passed ball and scored on an infield hit. Rubio scored on a Marty Romero infield hit to make the score 6-0.

Yaver tripled in the third inning to score Cesar Romero and make the score 7-0. It was the only Wilson hit to leave the infield.

Both Van Lue and Wilson Coach Wayne Shiota cited the strike as a reason for their teams’ erratic play.

“We didn’t practice all last week,” Shiota said. “That’s probably why we didn’t hit well today.”

Narbonne did not practice either, and their rustiness showed. The Gauchos were charitably credited with four errors, but could easily have made other plays that were scored as hits.

Sophomore left-hander Jason Donaldson relieved starter Bill Inman (4-4) and threw two no-hit innings. Narbonne’s hitting never came around, however, and the team could not score despite the play of some spirited reserves.