Announcement
U-T SAN DIEGO - JOHN MAFFEI
La Costa Canyon 11 Vista 0
"You don't hang a banner for winning the North County Tournament. You do, however, for winning a league title. And while the Vista and La Costa Canyon baseball teams split four games over an eight-day period - with Vista beating the Mavericks in the North County Tournament final last week -- LCC beat the Panthers 11 - 0 Friday to take two out of three games in an Avocado West League series. The wins are a big steps toward a league title.
"This is the game we wanted," said LCC coach Justin Machado. "We play the season in phases -- nonleague, league and postseason. Were in phase two now, and we need to win every league series."
The Avocado West plays league games in three-game sets. Top-ranked La Costa Canyon (16-4, 2-1) won 3-0 Monday and Vista won 3-2 Wednesday. Friday, LCC junior right-hander Julian McDonald threw a two-hitter, striking out six and walking two. He retired the last 11 batters. He got 13 flyouts and lowered his ERA to 1.02 over 27 1/3 innings.
"My off-speed stuff was pretty good, but I left a lot of pitches up, and they got themselves out," McDonald said. "We have a great rivalry with Vista, so this was a big game. We really wanted to win the series."
Mickey Monicak led the hit parade for LCC with three singles and three RBIs. "Mickey's unbelievable," said McDonald. "He's the heart and soul of our team. And this is a very close team."
No. 4 Vista (14-4, 1-2) trailed just 2-0 after four innings, but walks, a hit batter and defensive mistakes cost the Panthers over the final three innings. "We played LCC four straight times and split with them," said Vista coach Ricky Imperiali. "But it's really all about league."
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