Simply sweet for Estancia

Bryce Alderton

Nothing came easy for the Estancia High baseball team this season.

And the Eagles weren’t about to deviate from simplicity in their

season finale against crosstown rival Costa Mesa Wednesday afternoon

at Estancia.

The hosts reverted to the fundamentals to exact revenge on the

Mustangs with a 3-1, come-from-behind victory, splitting the two-game

season series.

The formula included several sacrifice bunts, hit-and-runs,

error-free defense and a stirring effort from sophomore Taylor

McClanahan on the mound to halt an eight-game losing streak and help

the Eagles (3-21, 3-9 in league) leap-frog the Mustangs (9-15-1,

2-9-1) into sixth place in the seven-team Golden West League.

“I told the guys that if we don’t win any other game, we have to

beat Mesa,” said Eagles’ junior outfielder Mike McDaniels, who

singled and scored Estancia’s first run in the fourth to even the

contest at 1. “This is my third year on varsity baseball and we had

never beaten them. I told the seniors to go out on top.”

McClanahan allowed one run on seven hits -- four after the first

inning -- with two strikeouts and no walks in tossing a complete

game, earning the expected praise from third-year coach Jon Green.

“Taylor was amazing,” Green said. “He threw strikes and got ahead

of guys.”

Estancia, which had won one league game in Green’s prior two

seasons, scored single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings,

the final two coming on deftly placed bunts with the runner from

third bolting for home on the pitch.

The first four batters bunted in the Eagles’ fifth, capped with

sophomore shortstop Trevor McDonald’s sacrifice that brought in Zack

Oliver.

With one out in the sixth, sophomore catcher Tim Morley reached

second after his sharply-hit grounder near the third-base bag caromed

off Mesa’s Cody Waldron.

Mustangs’ Coach Dave Austin argued briefly, later saying he

thought the ball hit Waldron in foul territory.

Kane Curran, who singled in McDaniels in the fourth, followed with

a single to shallow left, setting the stage for Evan Van Geem’s RBI

bunt.

Green said the game dictated using the “small-ball” concept, which

generally stresses aggressive baserunning, timely hitting and its

share of bunts.

Lack of offensive production during the prior eight-game losing

streak -- the Eagles had scored six runs in that span -- also called

for some experimentation.

“We need every run possible to win games,” Green said. “If we see

another team not fielding the bunt once or twice, we are going to

keep on throwing it out there. Every game we see who we are and what

can we do with the bat. [Wednesday], it went our way.”

Austin was not caught off-guard with the Eagles’ plate approach.

“We knew they didn’t have a lot of bats,” Austin said. “[Reliever

Alex] Pisarski slipped [when fielding a bunt from Blake Pinto in the

fifth]. We didn’t make the right throws and had opportunities on base

and we left runners on.”

The Mustangs had runners on in all but the fifth inning. They

twice left runners stranded at third -- once in the third following

Jeff Waldron’s one-out triple to deep center field and again in the

fourth.

Estancia senior left fielder Jesse Hart threw out Waldron trying

to score from third on Andrew Sanford’s flyout for a double play to

end the third.

Senior Kyle Benson, who went 2 for 3 with an RBI, led off the

fourth with a sharp single to left and advanced to second on

Pisarski’s sacrifice bunt.

But McClanahan induced two groundouts to end the inning.

Benson singled home Waldron, who also went 2 for 3, to give Mesa a

1-0 lead in the first.

The left-handed Sanford retired the first seven batters he faced

before Pinto reached safely on a bunt. Sanford struck out two while

scattering four hits with two strikeouts in four innings before

giving way to Pisarski, each playing their final high school game.

Morley and Curran each had two hits for the Eagles.

The perpetual Paul Troxel trophy, awarded to the winner of the

season series between the teams, remains in Costa Mesa’s hands due to

a tiebreaker that counts total runs scored for each team in the two

games. The Mustangs defeated the Eagles, 5-2, March 30, securing a

6-5 edge in runs.

The winning team has traditionally dined on ribs at Newport Rib

Co.

Golden West League

Estancia 3,

Costa Mesa 1

Score by Innings

*--*

Mesa 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 1 7 1

Estancia 0 0 0 1 1 1 x - 3 8 0 *--*

Sanford, Pisarski (5) and Benson; McClanahan and Morley. W --

McClanahan, 2-4. L -- Pisarski, 2-5. 2B -- Morley (E). 3B - Waldron

(CM).