BY TED APODACA: The Pacifica High baseball team went into last week in a three-way tie for second place in the Empire League race. Pacifica, Valencia and Tustin were all 4-2, behind Cypress at 5-1. But the Mariners ran into league-leading Cypress and two pitchers that were locked in for the stretch run.
Jake Thomas was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Cypress’ Raul Salazar in the first meeting on May 3. The two teams were scoreless through five before the Centurions scratched across a run in the top of the sixth inning.
BY TED APODACA: The Pacifica High baseball team went into last week in a three-way tie for second place in the Empire League race. Pacifica, Valencia and Tustin were all 4-2, behind Cypress at 5-1. But the Mariners ran into league-leading Cypress and two pitchers that were locked in for the stretch run.
Jake Thomas was locked in a pitcher’s duel with Cypress’ Raul Salazar in the first meeting on May 3. The two teams were scoreless through five before the Centurions scratched across a run in the top of the sixth inning.
The Centurions pushed another run across in the top of the seventh before the Mariners made a pitching change. But the change couldn’t slow Cypress, which plated four more runs to eventually win the game, 6-0. Cypress was 6-1 after the win, while the Mariners fell to 4-3.
“I felt our pitcher had a tremendous day too, to hold them to two runs and it just got away from us there,” Mariner Head Coach Mike Caira said.
In the Friday game, at Cypress, the Mariners again ran into a hot pitcher, as Josh Landry pitched a no-hitter against the Mariners to drop them to 4-4, while Cypress improved to 7-1. There were two games left in the regular season heading into this week.
In the loss on May 3, Caira said Thomas was hitting his spots and was able to throw multiple pitches for strikes. The defense also played well behind him, particularly the left side of the infield as Thomas was able to induce several ground balls to that side.
Thomas scattered six hits, struck out one and allowed just two walks. Thomas is a junior and the Mariners have just two seniors on the squad this year. Caira said the Mariners have been steady on pitching and defense, and has liked the growth he has seen this year.
“We have improved tremendously since the beginning of the year… we just need a little bit more offensively to get us there,” Caira said.
The Mariners will close out the regular season on Thursday, May 11 at Valencia, at 3:15p.m.
