Prep baseball: A hum-dinger

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - It was something less than the dream, but his walk-off

three-run home run Tuesday, with two outs and the score tied in the

bottom of the seventh, was more than Daniel Hunter could ever ask.

“It’s a dream come true,” the Costa Mesa High senior said of the

decisive blow in the Mustangs’ 6-3 baseball win over CIF Southern Section

Division IV second-round visitor Mayfair (15-10).

“Every little kid growing up dreams about hitting a home run in the

bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs,” Hunter said. “I

almost accomplished that dream. As soon as I hit it, I knew the ballgame

was gone, because I hit it in a good spot. I didn’t know the ball was

gone, though. It was awesome. I don’t know how else to explain it.”

Hunter’s heroics, ripping a low 1-0 fastball over the left-center

field fence for his fourth RBI of the game and his fourth dinger of the

season, also helped the Mustangs accomplish something no other team in

school history has. At 17-9-1, heading into Friday’s quarterfinal clash

against Bonita (17-8-1) -- at a site to be determined by today’s coin

flip -- the Pacific Coast League’s third-place team owns the school

single-season victory record. The 1999 Mustangs, who lost in the CIF

Division IV quarterfinals, as well as Mesa’s 1962 CIF 3-A champions, both

won 16 games.

“This gives us bragging rights,” said Mesa senior Carlos Franco, whose

6 2/3 innings of relief pitching helped the hosts rally from a 2-0

first-inning deficit.

Franco, the team’s closer, allowed just one run and struck out seven

in his longest outing of the year.

“That was the best pitching performance of my career,” said Franco,

whose varsity tenure began as a starting infielder-outfielder on the 1999

quarterfinalist. The returning All-Newport-Mesa District performer, now

5-2 with five saves, threw an economical 78 pitches, 56 for strikes, to

help keep himself on the hill.

“I was just trying to throw strikes, because I knew they couldn’t hit

my fastball,” Franco said. “And I had my breaking ball working, too, so I

could mix it up.”

Hunter, who called pitches behind the plate, said Franco, who was

involved in an automobile accident Saturday that sent him to the hospital

with a sore neck, never faltered.

“I went out a couple of times to ask him if his legs were still strong

and he looked me right in the eye and said ‘Yes!’ Hunter said. “I thought

he could go three, maybe four innings, but he really stepped up.”

There were other heroes for the winners, whose three-run fourth gave

them a one-run lead, only to see a Matt Teasley solo homer knot the score

in the sixth.

Junior left fielder Michael McGuire had two hits, a walk and one run.

His biggest contribution, however, may have come on defense. With the

bases loaded in the first, he fielded a two-out RBI single near the

left-field line and threw to shortstop Billy Halverson at third to nail

the runner trying to advance from first. Halverson slapped the tag on him

before the runner from second touched the plate, erasing the run and

averting what would have been a 3-0 deficit.

Halverson, a junior, made two other sterling plays, including going

horizontal to stab a wayward pickoff throw from Hunter, while remaining

in position to tag a Monsoon who had strayed off the bag on a pitch in

the dirt.

Along with Halverson, senior first baseman Antony Grubisich, who made

a nice catch on a foul pop, and senior third baseman Brent Stevens, had

one hit apiece.

Senior second baseman Steven Shores, who matched McGuire and Hunter

with two hits, is now 6 for 8 in the playoffs. He singled with two outs

and junior Nick Cabico on first to bring Hunter to the plate in the

seventh.

“As Daniel has gone, we’ve gone,” said Bauermeister, who asked Hunter,

already named team MVP and now leading Mesa with 25 RBIs, to relax and

not try too hard in the fateful at-bat. “When he was hot early in the

year, we were hot. Then when he slumped, we slumped. But he’s hitting

again and we’re still playing.”

Hunter, a 5-foot-8, 173-pound All-Pacific Coast League defensive

lineman, brings a football mentality to the diamond. He admits his high

energy level has worked against him at times.

“I get so pumped up, sometimes I try to do too much,” Hunter, still

clutching the now historic home-run ball, said. “But coach told me (in

the seventh) to relax and look for something to hit to the (opposite

field). The minute I started focusing on hitting a ball in the gap, I did

more than I was supposed to.”

CIF DIVISION IV PLAYOFFS

Second round

Costa Mesa 6, Mayfair 3

Mayfair 200 001 0 - 3 8 1

Costa Mesa 000 300 3 - 6 8 0

Musick, Langkamp (4), Bry (7) and Wagner; Costelloe, Franco (1) and

Hunter. W - Franco, 5-2. L - Bry. HR - Teasley (M), Hunter (CM).