2-A/1-A Baseball : Grossmont, Carlsbad Go Same Way to the Final

It was a day Ernie Banks would have loved, a great day to play two baseball games at Grossmont College. But with two nearly identical outcomes?

Those perusing the final totals from Saturday’s San Diego Section 2-A semifinal doubleheader would have thought the scorekeeper used carbon paper between the score sheets.

Carlsbad High’s Scott Karl and Grossmont High’s Mark Gapski pitched strikingly similar three-hit shutouts--both losing no-hit bids in the fifth--to lead their teams to victory and into Wednesday’s championship game at 3 p.m. at the University of San Diego’s Cunningham Stadium.

In the early game, Carlsbad collected 12 hits to defeat Crawford, 9-0. In the second, Grossmont used an 12-hit attack to beat Rancho Buena Vista, 10-0. The hitting standouts included catchers Buck Taylor of Carlsbad and Todd Cady of Grossmont.

Grossmont (19-8-1), which lost in the semifinals the past two seasons while competing in the 3-A, and No. 8 Carlsbad (22-9) both advanced to the final for the first time. Crawford finished 23-5, Rancho Buena Vista 17-12.

The big difference in the games was that Carlsbad jumped out to an early 6-0 lead and coasted. Grossmont did not accumulate six runs until the fourth, then coasted.

Either way was just as effective; one run would have been sufficient the way Karl and Gapski were throwing and with the defensive support each received.

Karl (5-1, 0.00 ERA) did not allow a hit until two outs in the fifth. Todd Davis, who bats eighth for Crawford, lined a single to right but was quickly erased when he was picked off by second baseman Larry Griffith after taking too wide a turn around first. In successive innings, the Colts’ Chris Townsend had a check-swing single, and Jeff Thrift got a single on a dribbler down the third-base line that Karl fielded and threw away for a two-base error.

Gapski (8-2) yielded his first hit with one out in the fifth, a single up the middle by Rancho Buena Vista’s Kevin Lippert, who--you guessed it--bats eighth. The next batter, James Gore singled, advancing Lippert to third, but was caught attempting to steal second. Lonny Maniscalco doubled in the seventh.

“Nobody mentioned (the no-hitter) to me,” Gapski said. “But I started thinking about it in the fourth inning. Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

Both Karl and Gapski struck out six and each hit a batter. Gapski, a right-hander, walked three, Karl, a lefty, only two.

Adding to their accomplishments was the fact that Crawford and Rancho Buena Vista had been playing well.

No. 4 Crawford set single-season section records for runs (259), doubles (72) and, with three Saturday, hits (306), edging Santana’s 304 in 1988. Rancho Buena Vista had scored 35 runs in the past three games. The Longhorns upset No. 2 Mission Bay Thursday, 13-6.

For Carlsbad, Taylor was two for three, including a three-run home run to left in the first. That gave the Lancers a 5-0 lead and knocked Crawford’s A.J. Leighton (8-3) from the mound. Leighton was attempting to pitch after a two-week bout with mononucleosis. Every Carlsbad hitter except Karl had at least one hit.

For Grossmont, Cady, a sophomore, was three for four with a triple, double and single, three runs and two RBIs. Cady’s triple hit off the top of the center field fence 410 feet away. Third baseman John Tatum was four for four with two triples, two RBIs and two runs.

1-A Final

Francis Parker 5, Holtville 0--William Beamer (14-2) threw a one-hitter and Bob Ogle drove in two runs as top-seeded Francis Parker (20-6) won its fourth title in five years.