Mesa takes apart Grizzlies

SANTA ANA — A skate park was so visible some Costa Mesa High baseball players looked across the street to watch a trick or two.

If you ignored the skaters, Mikey Molina forced teammates to check things out that way in the top of the third inning.

There’s no fence up at Centennial Park, where Godinez plays its home games, so if you were in attendance Friday you most likely saw what happened.

Molina tagged a ball hard, on most fields it would’ve bounced off the fence. On this one, the ball traveled toward the skaters, who performed in the background.

The center fielder tried to make a spectacular catch only to get tangled up in a bush before spilling onto the street without the ball.

He ended up with bruised arms and hands, skater-type injuries.

As the phrase “Skate or die!” goes, the Mustangs stayed on their feet, on top of the Orange Coast League, winning, 10-1.

Costa Mesa closes the first half of league play on a roll, 6-0. The Mustangs are in contention to win their first league baseball championship since 1978. Hard to disregard how long the drought has been, Coach Jim Kiefer tried his best.

“You didn’t hear [the year] from me,” said Kiefer, his last words before leaving the field.

The race to finishing first isn’t over.

The Mustangs (13-5) have six more league games to play. Last year, they began league at 5-1, only to see the title hope disappear, losing the final three league contests.

The coach and his players talk about taking it one game at a time. No team in league has come close to giving Costa Mesa a challenge. The closest games have been decided by four runs, twice, once to rival Estancia and Godinez.

Beating Godinez, a first-year varsity program, is sort of a given. The Grizzlies are now 1-16, 0-6.

The Mustangs swept the three-game series. The latest game saw the biggest discrepancy in the score.

Starter Tyler Peterson showed up, not with his usual stuff. The junior still managed to go the distance for his third complete game of the season.

“I was kind of off,” said Peterson, who improved to 5-1 after allowing two hits and one run, while striking out five and walking one. “I don’t know where my head was. I was a little lost.”

Costa Mesa’s defense and offense picked up the right-hander. Those two facets of the game have carried the Mustangs in league.

Pitching has been strong as well. With Peterson and Nick Pederson as the top starters, the Mustangs are tough to beat.

Both can hit as well. Peterson went two for four with a run batted in. Pederson went three for four and drove in four runs.

The senior’s sacrifice fly in the second gave the Mustangs a 4-1 lead.

“It was expected that we were going to compete in this league,” Pederson said after Costa Mesa finished runner-up last season. “We’re doing it so far and we want to continue doing that.”

Next is a home game Tuesday against Estancia at 3:15 p.m. The Eagles have more experienced pitchers than Godinez and Pederson is expecting a closer game.

Pederson is scheduled to take the mound against the Eagles.

“We’re a work in progress,” Kiefer said. “We’re just trying to get better. We know at the end of the season is where we want to play our best baseball.”

The Mustangs don’t plan to skate down the stretch.

Orange Coast League

Costa Mesa 10, Godinez 1

SCORE BY INNINGS

Peterson and Hirsch, Miller (7); Lopez, Serrano (5) and Sauceda. W – Peterson, 5-1. L – Lopez, 0-6. 2B – Lopez (G), Molina (CM). HR – Maloney (CM).

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].