LA COSTA CANYON HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL

North County Times By: John Maffei

 " Mavs catcher secures comeback win over Torrey Pines -

  Will Swanner has a college baseball scholarship to Pepperdine tucked safely in his pocket. Plus, he has professional scouts buzzing all around.

  He was in the moment on Wednesday as No. 1 - ranked La Costa Canyon and No. 4 Torrey Pines squared off in the first of a three - game showdown for first place in the Avocado League.

  That was clear when LCC's senior catcher delivered in the clutch.  He slugged a homer in the sixth to tie the game and drew a bases-loaded, walk-off walk in the bottom of the seventh as the Mavericks beat Torrey Pines 4-3 before a large crowd at La Costa Canyon High School.

  The win was the 10th in a row and 15th in the last 16 games for the Mavericks who improve to 24-4 overall and 12-1 in the league. Torrey Pines, which saw its 14 - game winning streak end falls to 12-1 and 22-7. The teams play again Friday afternoon at Torrey Pines and Wednesday at LCC to close out league play.

  "This was a total team effort," Swanner said. "I'm not worried about a scholarship or the draft, I just want to win the league title outright."  To do that, the Mavericks need to sweep Torrey Pines. The final game figures to be a rematch of Wednesday's pitching duel between left-handers Joey DeNato of Torrey Pines and Max MacNabb of La Costa Canyon. Both were brilliant in the first meeting. Both struck out nine.

  "That was a great matchup beween the two best pitchers in the county." said LCC coach Justin Machado after MacNabb improved to 9-1 and DeNato fell to 7-2. "Both of them pitched their butts off, gave great efforts. Both cleanup hitters (Swanner and Josh Sabourin of Torrey Pines) hit home runs. Both sides got clutch hits. There was a great crowd. This was a lot of fun."

  After giving up an unearned run in the first inning. DeNato retired eight in a row before La Costa Canyon struck for a single run in the fourth, but the biggest blow came when Swanner homered in the sixth.  Kyle Durrschmidt started the winning rally with a one-out single. Bobby Zalud followed with a single and MacNabb walked to load the bases. DeNato got Phillip Evans swinging on a full-count pitch. Will Swanner worked the count full before DeNato missed badly for a walk.

  "Both pitchers did exactly what we expected." said Torrey Pines coach Matt Chess. "Joey gave us everything he had, and Max was real good. People had questioned if we were that good. Well, we went toe-to-toe with the best team in the county and took it to the final strike. This was a great game, a lot of un. Honestly, it would have been more fun had we won, but I think it would have been a privilege to sit in the stands and watch this one."

   MacNabb gave up Sabourin's two-run homer in the fourth and DeNato slapped a single through a drawn-in infield to score a runner who had reached on a strike out and wild pitch. MacNabb retired the last eight Falcons he faced.

 

The series against rival Torrey Pines finally arrived and Game 1 of the series lived up to everything the game was expected to be.  This game was played at Torrey.

Neither team scored in the first inning, but LCC jumped on the board in the 2nd with a homerun by Carter Johnson.  No one scored until the bottom of the 4th when Torrey scored two runs to tie the game.  La Costa added one in the 6th when Colin Winters went yard to dead center field.  Now leading by just one run, the Mavericks took to the field.  With a base-on-balls and a single, Torrey had runners on 1st and 2nd with only one out.  Torrey was now knocking at the door to take the lead.  Torrey's #5 hitter was up and LCC had not gotten him out all day........ He smoked a long, long fly ball to center field.  Niko Marinos, with a major league effort, made the play of the day year running the ball down and catching it over his shoulder on a full sprint toward the fence.  Niko fired the ball in to the infield and the runner was called out for leaving 2nd without tagging up.  This play extinguished the threat.  The Mavericks then added three more in the 7th - including a homerun by Shayne Davern.   The Mavericks won with a final score of 6-2.

Keats Ewing threw a 92-pitch complete game, giving up just one earned run.  Keats pounded the lower half of the zone producing six put-outs by Manny at the shortstop position.

After the game, Coach Ryan was quoted "our boys produced clutch hits and made clutch plays - this is what we've prepared for all year long".

With this win, the Mavericks move to 12-0 in the league and 28-2 for the season.  Game 2 with Torrey is scheduled for this Friday at Diegueno Field.

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The boys performed well in all 3 phases to win the first game 4-2. Andrew Hinkle went the distance on the mound allowing only two runs. The defense played well behind Hinkle who scattered 7 hits. The final threat of the game was the highlight.  A wonderful relay from Lyon to Gage to Armstrong ended the threat with Armstrong blocking the plate beautifully. Offensively the boys hit well enough to win with Danny Martin recording the only multi-hit game.  Zach Armstrong recorded an RBI double and Hinkle also recorded a double. Lyon and Redondo also recorded key hits.

   Will Swanner hit a home run and had two rbi's, while Max MacNabb knocked out two hits in addition to pitching 7 innings for his 9th win against only 1 loss, allowing 3 earned runs on 5 hits, walking 1, and striking out 9.  Bobby Zalud went 2 for 4, 1 run scored, Kyle Durrschmidt 2 for 3, 1 run scored and Phil Evans 1 for 3, 1 run scored. In the bottom of the 7th inning Kyle singled, Bobby singled, Max walked and after a strike out, Will drew a full count bases loaded walk to force in Kyle with the winning run.

   La Costa Canyon pulled into a 12-1 tie in league play with Torrey Pines with two league games remaining with Torrey Pines, Friday May 14th at Torrey Pines and Wednesday May 19th at La Costa Canyon.

Game one of the double header was won by the home team by a score of 6-0.  Tanner Gage went the distance pitching a gem, while allowing only 2 hits.  Offense was provided by McMahon (2 hits), Martin (2b),Lyon, Redondo,Schupp, Healy, Armstrong and Roseberry all had knocks.

Game two was not a contest to remember ,with the Mavs struggling in all three phases.  Bright spots were Martin and Gage with 2 hits each and Jason Guendert's 3 scoreless innings.