Sailors rally past Mustangs

Barry Faulkner

The spring-break tournament season is usually the time high school

baseball coaches hand opportunities to untested pitchers, hoping to

find a potential diamond in the rough.

Newport Harbor High may have found just such an entity Monday in

an 11-8 Pride of the Coast tournament pool-play win over visiting

Costa Mesa.

Sailor senior Kyle Kastner, making his first mound appearance of

the season, surrendered just two hits and no earned runs in four

relief innings to earn the victory.

Kastner, who began the game as the designated hitter, threw 10

first-pitch strikes to the 16 hitters he faced and struck out four.

His ability to pepper the strike zone provided a stark contract to

Costa Mesa pitchers, who issued seven walks and hit one batter.

“[Kastner] was sick at the beginning of the season with a real bad

cold that just stayed with him,” Newport Harbor Coach Joel Desguin

said. “He lost about 20 to 25 pounds, so we’ve been using him just as

a designated hitter.”

Kastner, however, may find future time on the bump after helping

Harbor overcome a 6-0 deficit to improve to 6-7.

Desguin said his team’s slow start, which included four errors in

the first four innings -- leading to six unearned runs -- may have

been a byproduct of a spring-break mentality.

“I told our guys after Saturday’s game [a 6-5 tournament-opening

win over Ventura] that Monday might be a little tough,” Desguin said.

“The Monday of spring break is always tough, because the kids are

thinking about not being in school and their friends being here and

there, and them having to be here playing baseball. It can be tough

to focus and that showed those first few innings.”

The Mustangs appeared adequately focused early, pouncing on

Newport miscues to take a seemingly commanding lead.

With one out and a runner on, a Costa Mesa batter reached on a

strikeout after the throw to first on the pitch in the dirt sailed

into right field to score one run and put a man on second.

Ryan Szwast followed with the first of his two doubles to drive in

a run. Alex Dominguez then singled and stole second to put runners at

second and third.

Steven Mendoza followed with a perfect squeeze bunt that died

midway up the third-base line for a single and an RBI. Then a fourth

run scored on Kyle Benson’s subsequent fielder’s-choice grounder.

A two-out error extended the Costa Mesa second, allowing the

Mustangs to score twice, including one on an RBI single by Benson.

But Newport rallied in the third, opening with a single and three

straight walks to get on the scoreboard.

After a pop-up, senior first baseman Greg Miner launched a 3-2

pitch over the fence in left for a grand slam, his first big fly of

the season.

“That was the big hit,” Desguin said of Miner’s blast.

Mesa extended its lead in the fourth, when the first two runners

reached on fly balls dropped in the outfield for back-to-back errors.

The first scored on Szwast’s grounder to short and the second on a

Dominguez double over the left-fielder’s head.

But Newport rallied again in its fourth, thanks largely to three

more walks and a hit batsman.

Chris Thompson was hit on the leg with the bases loaded to pick up

an RBI and Taylor Young’s fielder’s choice pulled the Tars within

8-7. Then the tying run scored on a delayed double steal that began

with runners at first and third.

After Young broke for first, the pitcher stepped off and threw to

second base. Mesa shortstop Alex Pisarski fielded the throw in front

of the bag and fired home in plenty of time to nail the runner trying

to score. But the ball came loose during the attempted tag and Mesa’s

lead was gone.

After a Jeff Sanchez single and a walk, Kastner lifted a sacrifice

fly to put the hosts ahead for good and help his own cause.

Newport added two unearned insurance runs in the sixth to drop the

Mustangs to 6-6-1.

Junior Skylar Cozad was 2 for 3 and scored twice to lead the Tars’

six-hit attack, while senior Patrick Keehan went 1 for 2, scored

twice and had two stolen bases.

Young drove in two, scored three and stole a base.

Dominguez was 3 for 4 for a third of Costa Mesa’s hits.

Pride of the Coast tournament

Pool play

Newport Harbor 11,

Costa Mesa 8

Score by Innings

*--*

Mesa 4 0 2 2 0 0 0 - 8 9 2

NH 0 0 5 4 0 2 x - 11 6 4

*--*

Dominguez, Morton (4), Peterson (4) and Benson; Parker, Kastner

(4) and Sanchez. W -- Kastner, 1-0. L -- Peterson, 1-1. 2B -- Szwast

(CM) 2, Dominguez (CM). HR -- Miner (NH).