Rio Mesa Falls to El Toro

Much of the crowd gathered at El Toro High on Tuesday for the second-round Southern Section 4-A Division playoff game came in part to see Dmitri Young of Rio Mesa.

Young, a shortstop who is expected to be taken in the first round of the June baseball draft, already has signed with Miami.

But by the end of the game, the attention had shifted to sophomore Marc VerWayne of El Toro, who pitched the Chargers to a 5-4 upset of fourth-seeded Rio Mesa.

VerWayne allowed four runs and eight hits, including two home runs. But when it counted most, he was at his best.

He allowed a homer to Young in the sixth (Young’s 11th of the season and 29th of his career) as Rio Mesa (18-7) cut the lead to 5-4. But VerWayne came back to retire the final five batters.

“He has poise to the max,” El Toro Coach Dan DeLeon said. “He’s only a sophomore but he has great composure. He goes about it like a shirt-and-tie businessman.”

Some of VerWayne’s best work came in the second inning after some of his worst. He retired the first two batters but hit a batter, allowed a single, then walked another to load the bases for Young.

DeLeon went to the mound for a meeting. “I told him that we didn’t want to make a mistake and (allow a home run),” DeLeon said. “I just told him to throw his best and that a walk was OK. We were willing to give up one, but not four.”

VerWayne’s first two pitches were curves for called strikes, then he got Young to ground hard down the line, but third baseman David Owens picked up the ball and got the force at third base to end the inning.

VerWayne gave up a third-inning, two-run home run to Jon McMullen as Rio Mesa took a 3-1 lead. McMullen was three for four with three runs batted in.

El Toro (17-11) scored the decisive runs in the fourth.

“We hit the ball hard but they made the plays,” Rio Mesa Coach Rich Duran said. “Their guy hung in there and kept getting the ball over the plate.”