HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Mission Bay Crests Again in Up-and-Down Race

Mission Bay Coach Dennis Pugh said he expected the City Western League baseball race to be a roller-coaster ride this season. He couldn’t have been more accurate.

The Buccaneers played three games in four days this week. They lost the first one Monday, and dropped to third place. They came back to beat Kearny on Wednesday and, with a 10-2 rout Thursday of University of San Diego High, Mission Bay (16-6, 6-2) pulled into a first-place tie with University City.

“It’s been a real roller-coaster ride,” said Pugh, whose Bucs finished second to USDHS in 1990 after winning seven consecutive league titles. “We still have four games left. We could have a three-way tie for first.”

The week has gone exactly the opposite for the Dons, who took sole possession of first place Tuesday with a 1-0 victory over La Jolla but lost two games in three days and fell to third place. USDHS is 5-3, 14-9 overall.

The Bucs combined hitting, pitching and defense on Thursday, and the Dons stranded seven runners, yielded nine walks and committed seven errors.

Mission Bay played errorless ball, got four shutout innings from starting pitcher Manny Castillo and had seven different batters get base hits. The Bucs, stocked with sophomores and juniors, had seven players in the lineup who averaged 5-feet-6 and 152 pounds.

“I don’t think we’re a really talented team,” Pugh said. “We try not to beat ourselves.”

Mission Bay picked up a run in the first then blew the game open with three in the third, one on sophomore Chase Lowery’s RBI double. In the fourth, sophomore Ivan Espinoza drove in two runs with a 300-foot triple to the opposite field.