Mission Makes Conference Call With 8-2 Victory

With an 8-2 win at Glendale on Thursday, Mission College improved to 3-4-1 against Western State Conference opponents--not outstanding, but good enough to remain in contention for one of five spots in the WSC’s Shaugnessy playoffs.

The only hitch is that Mission doesn’t play in the WSC.

The Free Spirit is instead a member of the lightly regarded Southern California Athletic Conference. Mission’s win over Glendale, then, put a nice feather in the SCAC’s cap while providing the team with a confidence builder as it zeroes in on its first state playoff berth.

“I think it’s real significant,” Mission Coach John Klitsner said. “We want to maintain that we’re for real. We don’t want people to give us the rap, ‘Your conference is weak.’ ”

Most of the other area schools--Valley, Glendale, Pierce, Ventura, Oxnard, Canyons and Moorpark--play in the powerful and haughty WSC, but Mission has held its own against that conference and dominated Glendale.

“It shows we can play with the teams in the WSC,” Klitsner said. “We feel we’re legitimate. We’re for real.”

No Valley-area school has won more games than Mission (21-9-1), which beat a Glendale team (11-20) that, believe it or not, is still in contention for the WSC playoffs.

Glendale started its ace, hard-throwing left-hander Matt Whisenant, who held Mission hitless for four innings. Glendale took a 1-0 lead in the second when Paul Hugasian homered on a high drive to left-center field.

Whisenant (4-3) struck out eight in the first four innings, but Mission forced him out of the game after scoring three runs in the fifth.

“He just ran out of gas,” Glendale Coach Steve Coots said of Whisenant, who had missed several starts due to a tender arm.

Mission continued to extend its lead. Robert Chavez hit a solo home run, his fourth, in the sixth and had a run-scoring sacrifice fly in a two-run seventh.

In the eighth, Mike Rogers drilled a run-scoring single and Dain Turner closed out Mission’s scoring when he drove Rogers home with a double to center.

Meanwhile, Nick Lymberopoulos and Nino Romo limited Glendale to five hits. Lymberopoulos (9-3) pitched seven innings, struck out seven and allowed only one run en route to his fourth consecutive win.

“He’s getting better all the time,” Klitsner said. “He just came at them with his good fastball.

Romo opened the eighth in relief of Lymberopoulos and struck out four in his two-inning stint. Romo gave up one unearned run.

Together they shackled Glendale’s powerful third, fourth and fifth hitters--Art Chute, John Bojanic and Hugasian, who have combined for 22 home runs this season. The three finished a combined two for 10, with a harmless Chute single the only hit besides Hugasian’s home run.

Mission banged out 12 hits in the final five innings. Rogers, Turner, Eddie Chavez and Chris Romo each had two hits.

“We started hitting the ball pretty well later on,” Klitsner said. “I was real happy. We looked good swinging the bat today. . . . Our guys are playing with a lot of confidence right now.”

Mission is second in the SCAC and will reopen conference play Tuesday at Barstow.