Victory Moves Mission Closer to Playoffs : Baseball: The Free Spirit takes over second place in SCAC by beating East L.A., 10-3.

A pair of Husky killers are on the loose.

Instead of calling the SPCA, though, notify the SCAC--the Southern California Athletic Conference. The Mission College baseball team just took a giant step closer to one of the conference’s state playoff berths after “Husky killers” Nick Lymberopoulos and Dain Turner led the Free Spirit to a 10-3 win over East Los Angeles on Thursday.

Lymberopoulos struck out 13 and threw a complete-game five-hitter to beat East L.A. for the third time this season. Turner smashed a two-run home run and had a run-scoring single in the ninth for his second consecutive game-winning hit at East L.A.

Turner’s ninth-inning run batted in was the first in a seven-run outburst that enabled Mission (18-9-1, 10-4 in conference play) to move into second place in the SCAC, a half-game ahead of East L.A. (14-10, 9-4) in the race for the conference’s second berth in the state playoffs.

Mission Coach John Klitsner pronounced his team in “real good shape” for the stretch drive and said: “The guys just came through. They showed a lot of heart. They really enjoyed playing in this game, and that’s something you look for in a team.”

Mission entered the top of the ninth with the score tied, 3-3, and had not scored a run against East L.A. starter Rafael Gutierrez in more than five innings. Things started quietly enough when Gutierrez hit No. 9 hitter Shawn Fontenot with a pitch and Mike Rogers sacrificed Fontenot to second, but then Mission exploded.

Gutierrez (6-3) walked Rich Ortiz and surrendered Turner’s single before being relieved by Rafael Pina, who sandwiched two walks around a run-scoring sacrifice fly.

With the score 5-3, designated-hitter John Kukawski slapped a two-out, two-run single up the middle. Chris Romo followed with an RBI double, and Fontenot, batting for the second time in the inning, drove in the final two runs of the game with a double off the fence in center.

Mission beat East L.A. for the third time in four games and snapped the Huskies’ seven-game winning streak.

The last time Mission played at East L.A., Turner hit a game-winning homer in the 11th. His two-run homer to right Thursday keyed Mission’s three-run third.

Lymberopoulos (8-3) walked three and allowed one earned run.

“He just didn’t lose his poise,” Klitsner said. “This was his best game from a standpoint of competition. He just wasn’t going to be denied.”

Lymberopoulos, a 6-foot-5 sophomore right-hander from Poly High, had thrown more than 100 pitches by the end of the seventh inning, but he wasn’t about to leave .

“I didn’t want to let my team down,” Lymberopoulos said. “I wasn’t going to let it get away. . . . My fastball was really on. I was just challenging them.”

Only Bobby Cortez, who had two doubles and drove in all three East L. A. runs, was up to Lymberopoulos’ challenge.

Ortiz was three for four with a triple and two runs scored. Eddie Chavez, Romo, Fontenot and Kukawski each had two hits.