LA COSTA CANYON HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

  Rancho Bernardo beat Poway 9-5 to win their Fifth CIF Division I Baseball Title.  Poway had won the Palomar League Championship and eliminated Torrey Pines in the semifinals.  Rancho Bernardo knocked out Buena Vista in the semifinals.

La Costa played their first tournament of the 2010 Summer Season and came away with the First Place, Championship Trophy.   Facing Carlsbad in the Championship Game, LCC jumped ahead with five big runs in the top of the first inning after their first seven batters reached base.  Neither team scored again until the fifth inning when the Lancers started to claw their way back in to the game.  LCC added runs in the 6th and 7th and thought they had the win cinched as they headed in to the bottom of the 7th with a 8-2 lead.  Carlsbad was not done though....... Carlsbad pecked away at the lead getting to the meat of their order.  Every fan in the stands was on the edge of their seats as they watched the lead drop to  just one run.  Carlsbad had the tying run on second base with just one out.  A sharply hit ball to 2nd base was fielded by Schenk then Balderas made the last play of the game with a nice put-out from third.  The Mavericks added another trophy to the collection with a final score of 8-7.

Carter Johnson pitched four shut-out innings and got the win.  He was relieved by Sachrison and Casas.

Casinelli, Solomon, Winters, Davern, Balderas, Miller, Allmaras, Johnson, and Casas ALL had hits.

This was an EXCITING game between two rivals that are sure to have three more years of intense games. 

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   After a spectacular regular season record of 26-4, and an Avocado League Championship at 14-1, the LCC Mavericks stumbled in the CIF Playoffs, loosing to Otay Ranch 3-10 and Buena Vista 4-5.

   In the elimination game on Friday, the Mavericks were trailing 3-5 going in to the bottom of the 5th inning, scored one run in the bottom of the fifth to pull within one, threatened in the bottom of the 6th and loaded the bases in the bottom of the 7th with two outs. However, a hard hit grounder right at  the first basemen playing back behind the runner and a toss to the pitcher covering the bag closed out the game.

  The Mavericks went down swinging but they were disappointed by the level of play that marked the two CIF playoff games after such a fantastic regular season.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES

By Terry Monahan

"Guzman sends Mavs to losers' bracket"

LA COSTA - The rest of the week depended on how deep into Wenesday's CIF San Diego Section Division I baseball playoff game pitcher Adrian Guzman went.  Otay Ranch High coach Bob McCurdy certainly got more than he expected. 

  Guzman threw a complete-game five-hitter and visiting Otay Ranch reached La Costa Canyon ace Max MacNab for seven earned runs in a 10-3 victory that dropped the top-seeded Mavericks into the losers' bracket of the double-elimination portion of the CIF tournament.

  Guzman struck out five and walked three in improving to 7-2. One of the runs he surrendered scored on a balk. The other two came on back-to-back solo home runs by Phillip Evans and Will Swanner to lead off the fourth inning.

  "Other than that,  he was superb, keeping them off balance the entire way," Otay Ranch coach Bob McCurdy said. "That's the key to stopping them. If you don't, they can hurt you. Adrian was the key for the rest of the week coming off that 10-inning win over Carlsbad on Tuesday.  When you have so many games in a week, you have to get good pitching."

  Otay Ranch (23-10) used a six run outburst against MacNabb (9-2) in the fourth inning to take control of the game.  The Mavericks (26-5) will face Bonita Vista on Friday in an elimination game at La Costa Canyon. Bonita Vista lost to Rancho Bernardo 15-4 on Wednesday.

  "We certainly didn't defend our home field this time," LCC coach Justin Machado said. "Thank goodness this is a double-elimination tournament, because we weren't ready to play today, and that's my fault. The six run inning changed the whole day. If we come out of that inning trailing maybe 5-0 we still have a chance. It took us out of the game. I think people will be surprised at the score."

  Otay Ranch advanced to meet Rancho Bernardo in a winners' bracket game Friday at Rancho Bernardo.

  "This is a huge win for the kids and the program," McCurdy said. "We're still kind of a young school and were fighting for a little respect. We've got a good club." 

  In the CIF Play In game Carlsbad tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the 7th on a two run home run but Otay Ranch pushed across the winning run in the top of the 10th inning for the 6-5 win.