LIONS TOURNAMENT A FINAL : St. Augustine Awakens and Overtakes Clairemont
All it took was a pep talk by Paul Mossuto.
And when he followed it with a triple, St. Augustine’s baseball players knew they had better oblige their teammate and start hitting the way they can.
St. Augustine (10-6) rallied from a three-run deficit, their biggest of the season, with five runs in the top of the fourth inning en route to a 7-3 victory over Clairemont (10-8) in the A Division championship game of the Lions tournament at Hickman Field.
“Paul was yelling and hitting everyone, trying to pep everyone up,” said first baseman Bryan Cantwell. “Then when he went out and hit that triple, we knew we had to do it.”
Mossuto’s one-out triple was followed by a run-scoring single by Jason Alcoser. Alcoser stole second and then scored on Cantwell’s two-out double.
Jeremy Klem singled, and David Salonius relieved Danny Langford (3-3) for Clairemont. Aaron Goncalves singled to score Cantwell, and Klem followed him home on a throwing error. Goncalves, who reached third on the error, then scored on a single by Justin Williams to make it 5-3.
“We had a slow start, then really came on,” St. Augustine Coach Mike Stephenson said. “We just had more pitching than they did. I’m very pleased with how we played in the tournament. We pitched well and hit extremely well for five games. And we’ve played exceptional defense.”
In the title game, Roger Alvarez (3-2) threw a six-hitter with no walks and three strikeouts. Mike Bryant threw a three-hitter in St. Augustine’s 7-2 semifinal victory over Coronado.
Jesus Jauregui hit a two-run single in the first to give Clairemont a 2-0 lead. In the second, Danny Langford scored from first on an error to make it 3-0.
Clairemont Coach Rob Dreher said the fourth-inning problems were typical of this season. “When we lose, we lose in one big inning,” he said.
After Clairemont’s 3-2 semifinal victory over La Jolla in eight innings Wednesday morning, Dreher said he expected some problems in the final.
“We had an exciting game this morning and some of the excitement carried over, but we just couldn’t sustain it,” he said.