Sports
Baseball Playoffs: Lancers Edge Mira Mesa, Visit RB
Carlsbad has won 15 of its last 20 games and has qualified for the final eight in the Division I double-elimination playoffs.
When the Carlsbad baseball team began the year by losing seven of its first eight games, Lancers coach Chris Greene had to be thinking this might be a long season.
Upon closer examination Greene noted that five of those early defeats came by one-run margins.
Since that rocky start, the Lancers have won 15 of their last 20 decisions and have qualified for the final eight in the San Diego Section Division I double-elimination playoffs.
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Visiting Carlsbad stunned Eastern League champion Mira Mesa 4-3 in eight innings in Tuesday’s play-in round to earn a first-round ticket to face top-seeded Rancho Bernardo (23-6) on the Broncos diamond Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. The Lancers lost to Rancho Bernardo 3-2 in 10 innings in a regular season meeting.
Junior right-hander Thomas Eshelman held Mira Mesa (24-7) to one run on three hits over seven innings, but the game was tied at the end of regulation. After Carlsbad scored three unearned runs in the top of the eighth, Eshelman showed signs of tiring as Mira Mesa pushed across a pair of tallies on four hits.
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“Eshelman is a warrior,” Greene said. “It wasn’t so much anything Eshelman did wrong. It’s just that I felt maybe we needed a fresh arm and a chance to give (the Marauders) a different look.”
Thus, sophomore Slater Lee was summoned to the mound.
“He didn’t even have a dang jersey,” Greene added.
But Lee was efficient. He did not have to retire a single batter to earn the save for Eshelman (6-3). For some reason, the Mira Mesa runner at second base attempted to steal third and was cut down on a throw from catcher Kyle Mendenhall to third baseman Cole Magro to end the game.
“It was a battle from the beginning, but we stuck with it,” Eshelman said. “We needed a good game to get into the double-elimination round.”
Magro fueled the Carlsbad offense with a pair of singles and a double in four at-bats.
Carlsbad (16-13) narrowly missed nosing out La Costa Canyon for the Avocado West League pennant, losing 8-5 to the Mavericks on the final day of the regular season. That denied the Lancers their first league title since 1993 when a big fella by the name of Troy Glaus anchored the lineup.
“That was a pretty good club,” Greene said. “We’re trying to get back there. This was a pretty big step.”
Special to Patch.com from East County Sports.com
