Mission Bay Wins in Seventh

Mission Bay beat St. Augustine in a unusual nonleague game Saturday. It was not a normal respite from Buccaneers’ and Saints’ respective City Western and City Harbor League schedules, which tend to deplete pitching staffs and make teams weary in early May.

Saturday’s championship of the City Conference Tournament was an important game. When the rains came in April, this game was saved for a sunny day.

And it was a title game worth saving . . . right down to the final at bat.

Host Mission Bay, which trailed by a run in the bottom of the sixth, won it, 3-2, on a single by J.J. Ibarra with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.

“We had a little bit of a playoff atmosphere,” said Mission Bay Coach Dennis Pugh, whose Buccaneers won the tournament for the second year in a row--playing their fifth game in seven days. “We got to make a lot of (coaching) changes, and we played a lot of guys.”

“You want to win a tournament, but it’s tough to put an emphasis on it when its your fourth game of the week and we got three league games coming up this week,” said Saints Coach Mike Stephenson. “But it was a great game; we knew it would be tough.”

Mission Bay (17-6), which beat Patrick Henry, 5-2, in a semifinal game earlier in the day, halted a 17-game winning streak by St. Augustine (18-3). The Saints’ streak began, ironically, after an 11-1 loss to Mission Bay in the March Hilltop-Moose tournament.

This game was so much different, the only thing missing was a duel between two top pitchers. But even the aces made cameo appearances.

Marco Inzunza (7-1) started for St. Augustine. The senior right-hander, who had allowed only one run in 21 previous innings, gave up a single to Ibarra, a double to Shane Stroberg and allowed a run in the first. He retired for the day after 25 pitches. Inzunza had thrown a two-hitter Tuesday.

Buccaneer left-hander Manny Castillo (4-3), who threw a five-hitter Thursday, was called on by Pugh to end a Saints threat in the seventh and he did so, getting the victory. Castillo entered with two outs and promptly walked Eric Miranda to put runners at first and second. Then got Craig DaLuz to hit a chopper that catcher Stroberg fielded and threw to first for the last out.

The real contributors, however, were John Pelligren, a first baseman who threw four scoreless innings for Mission Bay and Pete Albers (3-1), a hard-throwing right-hander who normally plays the infield for St. Augustine.

“He looked good; he showed me something today,” Stephenson said of Albers.

But Albers couldn’t get out of trouble in the sixth--when he walked the leadoff man and allowed a one-out, run-scoring double to Danny Gil--or the seventh. With one out in the seventh, Chase Lowary singled to left. Joe Enomoto was hit with an Albers pitch to put runners at first and second. After Castillo flied out to center, Ibarra worked the count to 2-0 then lined a fastball into left field to send Lowary home with the game winner.

After both teams scored in the first, St. Augustine took a 2-1 lead in the sixth on Chris Borunda’s single to left that scored John Mozerka from third. But they took themselves out of a possible big inning when they failed at a double steal and saw pinch-runner Joey Magdalin get thrown out at home.

“We were trying to force a mistake and (Mission Bay) didn’t make a mistake,” Stephenson said. “It looks ugly in hindsight.”

Said Pugh, “We’re doing the little things right now, that’s most important. And everybody’s contributing.”