Costa Mesa salvages final game of league series with home victory over Segerstrom

Costa Mesa players and coaches celebrate after Friday’s league win. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

After dropping its first two games to Segerstrom in Golden West League play, the Costa Mesa High School baseball team was determined not to allow the Jaguars to complete a sweep.

Will Clark and Will Morales had strong outings, and Grady Jackson blasted a three-run homer as Costa Mesa defeated Segerstrom 5-2 Friday at Costa Mesa to move into a tie for first place in league.

Costa Mesa is 10-6 overall and 4-2 in league.

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Clark pitched effectively for 4 2/3 innings and Morales came on and shut the Jaguars (10-6, 4-2) down the rest of the way to preserve the victory. 

“I didn’t have my best stuff today, but our offense got some clutch hits and that was the difference,” said Clark, who gave up two runs and added two hits, scored a run, and had an RBI. “I didn’t want to come out when I got pulled but our bats are coming alive, and we’re winning, so we have to keep on swinging.”

Morales entered the game with two on and two outs in the top of the fifth. He promptly struck out Jonathan Macias to end Segerstrom’s rally.

Morales gave up only one hit and struck out four in 2 1/3 innings of relief. The Jaguars put two runners on in the top of the seventh inning, but Morales got pinch hitter Noah Lopez to ground out to short to end the inning and secure the victory.

“I wasn’t expecting to pitch today but I was on the board,” said Morales, a junior. “I was throwing hard, and my fastball and changeup were working well. I pitched pretty good against these guys the last time we played them, and I was really glad to do it again today.”

Leading 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning, the Mustangs got a huge lift when Jackson cracked his second home run of the season, a high towering drive over the right field fence to give Costa Mesa a 5-1 lead.

“I was looking for a curveball, but I got a fastball down low and when I saw it my eyes lit up,” said Jackson, who had two hits in the game. “I felt it had a pretty good chance to go as soon as I hit it. It felt really good.”

Mustangs Coach Jim Kiefer was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We didn’t want to fall any further behind them in the standings, so it was a huge win for us,” said Kiefer, whose team has won six of its last seven games. “Today, we got clutch hits. The last two times we played these guys we didn’t get the big hits when we needed them. Morales did a great job today and we’re playing good ball.”

Clark gave the Mustangs a 1-0 lead with an RBI single in the first inning, driving in Wylan Rottschafer who had tripled to lead off the inning.

Segerstrom tied it at 1-1 in the second when Zack Bretza singled to score Nathan Nunez, but a perfect relay throw from left fielder Aiden Comte to shortstop Rottschafer to catcher Jack Shafer cut Marcos Valeriano, who was trying to score from second base, down at the plate for the third out of the inning and prevented Segerstrom from taking the lead. Bretza had three hits for the Jaguars.

Costa Mesa retook the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Schafer tripled with two outs and scored on Omar Gutierrez’s RBI single, giving the Mustangs a 2-1 lead. Costa Mesa also pulled off a 5-4-3 double play (Mateo Navarro to Gutierrez to Jackson) to end the fourth inning.

“It’s hard to sweep any team in our league,” said Jaguars Coach Erasmo Ramirez. “Costa Mesa is a good team. Jim (Kiefer) has really turned that program around. We had scoring opportunities in the first and second innings and we had the tying run at the plate in the seventh, but we didn’t get that clutch hit today. The two previous times we played them; we got those clutch hits. Baseball is a tough game.”