San Diego Section Baseball 3-A Semifinal : Despite Delay, Mount Carmel Tops Bonita Vista to Set Up 1-2 Final

SAN DIEGO —  Three days of protests, turmoil and delays meant that the first-round San Diego Section 3-A baseball game between Valhalla and Bonita Vista high schools, originally played on Tuesday, was not completed until Friday.

But the team not directly involved in the controversy, second-seeded Mount Carmel (23-4), will face top-seeded Santana (25-2) in today’s 3-A final at 2 p.m. at the University of San Diego. The Sundevils won their 20th game in a row, defeating Bonita Vista in the semifinals, 4-1, Friday at USD.

Bonita Vista and Mount Carmel showed up at USD Thursday, expecting to play their semifinal game. But they were informed that Bonita Vista and Valhalla first would have to finish their first-round game Friday at Bonita Vista, the site of the original game. Valhalla Coach John Marlowe had protested Bonita Vista’s 4-2 first-round victory. The protest was upheld by an appeals committee of high school principals, so the game was resumed with one out in the Bonita Vista half of the sixth.

Some thought that might fluster Mount Carmel pitcher Ed VanAelstyn, who warmed up and was ready to pitch on Thursday. It didn’t.

VanAelstyn (8-0) struck out seven in the first four innings of Friday’s semifinal, and wound up pitching a six-hitter.

“The delay didn’t bother me or the team at all,” VanAelstyn said. “I just geared up for today’s game just like yesterday and got the adrenaline flowing again. We just hoped a team would show up to play today.”

Mount Carmel showed it was ready to play from the start. In the second inning, Todd Kingery tripled when center fielder Billy Miller misjudged his fly ball. One out later, Kingery scored on a single by John Krainock. Krainock scored on Steve Rader’s doubled to left. Rader made the score 3-0 when he scored on a sacrifice fly by Mike Limtiaco.

All that came off starter Paul Harris, who also gave up an unearned run in the third. David Woodhouse replaced Harris in the third and was effective, allowing just one hit.

In the resumed first-round game, Woodhouse earned his 11th win of the season without a loss when the Barons scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally from a 2-1 deficit to win, 3-2.

Bonita Vista had the bases loaded in the sixth with one out, but couldn’t score when a squeeze play failed. The Barons again loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. Miller beat out a ground ball to second, scoring Teddy Erhardt with the tying run and Jim Werner with the game-winner.