LA COSTA CANYON HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

John Maffei - Union Tribune San Diego

LCC PITCHER FINDS WAY TO FINISH WHAT HE STARTS

 Perfect through 10 batters and working on a no-hitter through four innings, La Costa Canyon High junior right-hander Ethan Abrams was in complete control Tuesday.  Then Carlsbad "started picking up my curve, I left a couple of balls up, and a couple of bloopers fell in," Abrams said.

  And a comfortable five-run lead was down to a single run at the end of 4 1/2 innings.  But Abrams worked a perfect sixth and got the last two outs of the game with a runner on second as the host Mavericks hung on for a 5-4 win over No. 4-ranked Carlsbad in a first-place show down in the Avocado West League. 

  Taking the first game of a three-game series, LCC (17-9, 10-2) now has a two-game lead over Carlsbad (19-8, 8-4) with three league games to play. "Getting the first game is big, but we have a lot baseball left to play," said LCC coach Justin Machado." We have two more games with Carlsbad and one more with Vista, and I'm sure we'll see Vista's ace (Austin Ott) in that game.  "So we are not celebrating anything just yet."

  The Mavericks beat left-hander Ryan Wilson, Carlsbad's ace.  Wilson, who entered the game 8-0 with a 0.89 ERA, was touched for five runs on four hits and a pair of walks in the third inning. The big blow was a bases-loaded, two-RBI double by catcher Ryan Orr.  Scott Souter and Casey Feldmeir had RBI singles and Sean McElroy delivered a sacrifice fly.  It was Orr, who went to the mound with a 2-0 count, two outs and a runner on second in the seventh inning to talk with Abrams.  "Basically, I told him to relax," Orr said. "We had a base open, so I reminded him not to overthrow." 

  Abrams, who improved to 6-3, said he didn't remember what exactly was said between pitcher and catcher.  "I don't even know if Ryan said anything baseball related," Abrams said.  "I get a little too pumped up at times. I think he just came out to the mound to get me to calm down, break the tension."