DIVISON 2A CHAMPIONSHIP : Mission Bay Employs Right Combination

Mission Bay shortstop J.J. Ibarra, who had executed the play what seemed like a hundred times this season, wanted to do it one more time for posterity’s sake and the Section 2-A baseball championship.

He got his wish when he fielded St. Augustine’s Pete Albers sharp one-hopper. He flipped it to second baseman Joe Enomoto for one. Enomoto threw it to first baseman John Pellegrin for two.

Mission Bay’s 6-0 victory Wednesday afternoon at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium was easy as 6-4-3.

“I was talking to Joe before the play,” Ibarra said. “Maybe we could just get one more.”

Two innings earlier, Ibarra picked John Mozerka’s line drive out of the dirt and flipped to Enomoto to start their first double play of the day.

“J.J. and Joe are special kids,” Mission Bay Coach Dennis Pugh said of his 5-foot-6 and 5-8 double-play combination. “There are the epitome of the little man’s complex. You can tell them they can’t play, but all they’ll do is prove you wrong.”

The same could be said for Manny Castillo, Mission Bay’s 5-6 left-hander, who limited St. Augustine to two hits and avenged last year’s 3-0 loss to Grossmont in the title game.

“I thought about that game a lot,” Castillo said.

But there wasn’t much to think about for St. Augustine (28-6), making its first section final appearance.

The second-seeded Saints never put up much of fight against Castillo, save for a first-inning triple by Craig DaLuz with two outs.

Castillo (10-4) struck out four and walked only one. In his three playoff appearances, Castillo has been nearly untouchable--allowing three hits and no runs in 15 innings. In Mission Bay’s 10-0 quarterfinal victory over Santana, Castillo tossed a no-hitter.

“He may have had better stuff tonight than he did in the no-hitter,” Pugh said. “His fastball had a lot more velocity on it.”

Pugh said he never doubted Castillo would rebound from the loss in last year’s title game.

“I never worry about Manny in the big games,” Pugh said. “I could tell in the second inning that we were going to be OK.”

Pugh, who won his third title in six attempts, hasn’t had to worry much about his pitching all season, especially since the regular season ended. In four playoff games, top-seeded Mission Bay (26-8) outscored its opponents, 33-0.

In doing so, the Buccaneers became the first team in section history to go four games without being scored upon.

Marco Inzunza entered the game almost as hot as Castillo--having thrown 4 2/3 shutout innings in the Saints’ semifinal victory over El Capitan. But two batters into the game, it was evident Inzunza didn’t have his best stuff.

“He was really tight,” Stephenson said.

Inzunza had walked only 19 batters in 78 innings and once went 31 innings without a walk, but after striking out leadoff batter Stan Sgambelluri, Inzunza put Ibarra and Danny Gil on base in nine pitches. The next batter, Shane Stroberg, was hit on the shoulder.

Inzunza escaped the inning with only one run being scored, on Ivan Espinoza’s sacrifice fly to left. He settled down in the second and third innings, but Inzunza got into trouble again in the fourth. This time he couldn’t work his way out of it.

Pellegrin and Eric Serrano started the fourth with sharp singles to center and right, then Chase Lowary hit a line shot directly at right fielder Jon Santos. But just as Santos appeared ready to look the ball into his glove, he found the sun. The ball glanced off Santos’ glove and went to the wall. Pellegrin scored, Serrano went to third and Lowary to second.

Enomoto followed with a sacrifice fly to left that made it 3-0. Sgambelluri reached on a bunt single and Ibarra ripped a single to left that scored Lowary and knocked Inzunza (9-3) out of the game.

Javier Pamus came on in relief of Inzunza and threw two wild pitches, allowing two runs to score.

“Marco was hanging the ball up, and they were hitting it,” Stephenson said.

Ibarra said he wasn’t surprised.

“We were focused today,” Ibarra said. “We were out there to win. Last year, we were just happy to be here.”