2-A BASEBALL : All Curveballers Castillo, Inzunza Want Are the Right Breaks

Better put away the radar guns and prepare the hourglasses for this one.

The fastballs of Mission Bay’s Manny Castillo and St. Augustine’s Marco Inzunza probably won’t register on most scouts’ radar guns. Then again, their curveballs might be harder to locate than a plane lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

Just ask Castillo and Inzunza’s most recent victims.

Castillo (9-4, 1.62 ERA) dipped and darted his way to a no-hitter at Santana in the San Diego Section 2-A quarterfinals, striking out five and walking only one. On the season, he has 75 strikeouts and 24 walks in 73 innings.

Inzunza (9-2, 2.68 ERA) danced through 4 2/3 innings of one-hit relief with two strikeouts and two walks against El Capitan in the section semifinals. In 78 innings, he struck out 43 and walked only 19.

Neither pitchers’ strikeout numbers conjure up images of Roger Clemens or Dwight Gooden but they might bring to mind a John Tudor or Tommy John.

St. Augustine Coach Mike Stephenson said neither pitcher’s success is exactly a secret. Both are control freaks.

“They both get the curve ball over consistently,” St. Augustine Coach Mike Stephenson said. “If you can do that in high school, you will be tough to beat.”

So who gets the nod in the championship game at 4 p.m. today at Jack Murphy Stadium?

“If they’re both on, we may play forever,” Stephenson said.

But Stephenson said regardless of how dazzling they are, the scouts’ attention will not be on the pitching mound.

“They’ll all be looking at different guys,” Stephenson said. “Even though the reason these two teams are here is because of those guys.”

Inzunza, at 6 feet 1, 160 pounds, like a giant compared to Castillo, who is 5-6, 130 pounds.

“The (opposing batters) think I’m nobody,” said Castillo, a senior left-hander. “It makes me want to go out and show what I can do. When people say things about me, I just shine it off.”

Pugh said Castillo’s self-confidence might be better than his overhand curve.

” He feels he can beat anybody,” Pugh said. “He’s the kind of kid you need to have on the mound in a big game.”

Castillo was Pugh’s big-game pitcher last year too. He pitched a three-hitter and lost to Grossmont, 3-0, in the section finals.

What does Castillo remember about that game?

“I had one bad pitch, a fastball to Wynter Phoenix,” Castillo said. “He hit to the wall for a triple and that started their rally.”

Inzunza, a senior right-hander, also had a game he’s trying to forget. In this year’s season opener, he was shelled by El Capitan for 10 runs and three homers 5 1/3 innings.

“If the kid had any kind of an ego problem, that game would have hurt him,” Stephenson said. “But he just said, ‘Oh, well.’ ”

Tonight’s game will be the last at St. Augustine for the Inzunza family. Marco’s brother, Jorge pitched for Stephenson in 1990 and 1991 and went 17-2. Over the last three years, the Inzunzas, who live in Tijuana, have compiled a 28-4 record for the Saints.

“Unfortunately, there’s no more Inzunza boys,” Stephenson said. “They do have a little sister. I asked, ‘Can she pitch?’ ”

Should Inzunza or Castillo falter, neither Stephenson nor Pugh will hesitate in going to his bullpen.

Stephenson has junior right-hander Memo Lopez, who is 7-0 with 10 saves, a 1.55 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 38 innings. Pugh can turn to junior right-hander Jason Martin, who has allowed only one earned run in 38 1/3 innings (0.18 ERA). He also has 41 strikeouts and 18 walks.

Mission Bay (25-8) has beaten St. Augustine (28-5) 11-2 and 3-2 this season.

2-A Rosters

Mission Bay 1 J.J. Ibarra, ss 2 Seth Adams, p 3 Manny Castillo, p 4 Stan Sgambelluri, of 5 Wayne Lowry, of 6 Shane Stroberg, c 7 Joe Enomoto, 2b 8 Jesus Munoz, 3b 9 Danny Gil, of 10 Danny Brock, c 11 Chris Liosi, of 12 Jason Diaz, dh 13 John Pellegrin, 1b 15 Jason Martin, p 16 Chase Lowary, of 17 Jeff Dufek, p/1b 18 Adam Stuart, dh 19 Ben Smith, c 19 Seth Adams, ss 20 Eric Serrano, c/3b 21 Danny McElmury, p Coach: Dennis Pugh

St. Augustine 1 Chris Borunda, of 2 Paul Hernandez, c 4 Joey Magsalin, of 5 D.Giammarinaro,if 7 Eric Miranda, if/of 8 Jon Santos, of 9 John Mozerka, of 10 Memo Lopez, ss/p 11 Pete Albers, if/p 12 Marco Inzunza, of/p 15 Craig Da Luz, 3b 22 Javier Pamus, 1b/p David Vacchi, if Coach: M.Stephenson