Culver City Fireballer Mauricio Estavil Burns Mira Costa on 2-Hitter

Mauricio Estavil stood with his shirt off by the Culver City High School dugout, his feet buried in a pile of ice cubes.

Someone had finally figured out a way to cool off Estavil, Culver City’s ace left-hander.

Estavil’s teammates poured a cooler of ice down the red-hot pitcher’s back after he threw a 12-strikeout gem Wednesday afternoon against visiting Mira Costa. Estavil’s two-hitter gave Culver City a 6-1 victory, guaranteeing his team a share of the Ocean League championship.

“There is no question that Estavil is the best pitcher in this league,” Mira Costa Coach Jim Beaumont said. “He raises that whole team up a couple of notches.”

Beaumont said he tried to prepare his team to face Estavil this week by moving the pitching screen to within 45 feet of the plate (15 feet closer than normal) and throwing batting practice to his players as hard as he could. Beaumont is also left-handed.

“Obviously, it wasn’t enough,” Beaumont said. “Estavil is just way too much better than us right now.”

The rocket-armed Estavil (12-1) struck out every batter in Mira Costa’s starting lineup except No. 3 hitter Jason Garner.

Estavil fanned eight of the first nine hitters he faced, striking out the side in the second and third innings. And he had a perfect game until Garner broke it up with a single to right with two out in the fourth.

It wasn’t as easy as it looked, however, Estavil said.

“At the end of the game I started running out of gas,” said Estavil, who has signed a letter of intent to pitch at Pepperdine next year. “So I started going to my curve ball a little more.”

The breaking ball worked as well as Estavil’s deluxe fastball. The only run he gave up was unearned. He lost his shutout in the seventh inning when Scott Yetter chopped a bad-hop single into right, went to third on Troy Dunlap’s throwing error and scored on Andy Owens’ ground out.

Estavil struck out Bobby Dominguez and B. J. Allen to end the game.

Culver City got all the offense it needed in the third. Garner (4-6), Mira Costa’s starter, walked three in the inning and gave up RBI doubles to Estavil and Roger Packard, staking Culver City to a 4-0 lead.

The Centaurs added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth when Jesse Johnson hit a run-scoring triple, then came across on Jeff Price’s grounder.

Culver City Coach Bill Coates, in his first year at the school, didn’t know what to think of his team at the beginning of the season. Now he knows.

“As soon as I saw Mauricio pitch, I knew we would be at least a contender,” Coates said.

Culver City (21-4 overall, 11-2 in league) has a one-game advantage on Mira Costa with one game to play. The Centaurs travel to West Torrance on Friday, and Mira Costa (12-11, 10-3) will play host to Redondo.

Mary Star 32, Cathedral 4--The Stars collected 27 hits and set a school record for most runs scored in a game as they kept pace with Miraleste for first place in the Santa Fe League with a lopsided victory at Fromhold Field in San Pedro.

Mary Star and Miraleste are both 10-1 heading into league finales Friday. If they end up tied, a coin flip will decide which team enters the Southern Section 2-A playoffs as the league’s No. 1 entry.

Steve Papadakis, who hit a fourth-inning grand slam, and Stephen Nitta each drove in five runs and Ernie Gregg had three RBIs. Mary Star scored 11 runs in the fourth to build an 18-0 lead.

“I couldn’t stop our kids from playing,” said Stars Coach Frank Ponce De Leon, whose team improved to 15-4-1 overall. “All we did was hit. It looked like batting practice. Cathedral had two pitchers: slow and slower. It was ugly.”

Junior right-hander Mark Ponce De Leon, Frank’s brother, had a no-hitter through five innings and finished with a four-hitter to improve to 7-2.

Coupled with Monday’s 21-8 victory over Murphy, Mary Star has scored 53 runs in two games this week.

The Stars visit Salesian of East Los Angeles on Friday, while Miraleste travels to play third-place Cantwell of Montebello.

West Torrance 4, North Torrance 2--Matt Mishler snapped a 2-2 tie with a two-run single in the seventh inning and sophomore Stephan Wilson pitched a complete game to lead the Warriors to an Ocean League victory at North.

West (10-13 overall, 7-6 in league) put the winning runs on base in the seventh with the help of two North errors: a passed ball on a third strike and a wild throw on a bunt. Mishler followed with a single to right-center field.

Wilson, a right-hander, allowed eight hits and improved to 4-3. He drove in a run on a sixth-inning single. Tom Dallen gave West a 1-0 lead on a single in the first.

North dropped to 11-13 overall and 4-7 in league.

South Torrance 19, Morningside 6--Junior shortstop David Rosato homered twice and drove in four runs to power a 16-hit attack for the Spartans in an Ocean League game at South.

“He’s one of the best shortstops in Southern California,” South Coach Bob Grant said of Rosato, who was three for three.

The Spartans, who improved to 8-13 overall and 5-8 in league play in their final home game, finished with five home runs and nine extra-base hits.

Aside from Rosato, Brian Swearingen, Jeff Machnij and Geoff Shearer homered for South.

Morningside remained winless at 0-16 and 0-13.