The situation: CIF Division 3 playoffs; Fri., June 11; La Jolla, playing in a double-elimination tournament, had not lost a game yet. The Vikings were playing at home as the second seed in the tourney.
Ryan Lancaster, a lefthander, started the game for La Jolla and went five innings. Spence Carswell, throwing from the right side, entered the game in the sixth.
Leading off the seventh frame for the Mustangs, and hitting in the one slot, Alejandro Obeso singled up the middle.
The next batter, Adam Amaro, forced Obeso at second with an infield grounder. One out.
Carswell issued a walk to Olympian's Logan Hoslett, hitting in the third slot.
Angel Casanova, the leftfielder, came to the plate. The runners succeeded in pulling a double steal, Amaro to third, Hoslett to second.
Casanova bunted. Amaro came home. 4-1, Olympian. Hoslett advanced to third, Casanova now standing on first base.
La Jolla head coach Gary Frank, in the dugout, was aware his pitcher, Carswell, was approaching the 30-pitch plateau. CIF rules say if a hurler throws 29 pitches one day, he can return to pitch the next day. If he reaches 30, he has to rest. (The rules are designed to protect young arms.)
No telling what was going to happen, Frank had in mind preserving Spence at 29 pitches or less in case he needed him if the Vikings had to play the next day, Saturday. (They would have to play then if they lost this game. A win would let them rest until Tuesday.)
La Jolla was still in the game, down three runs with an at-bat coming in the bottom of the seventh. Coming to the plate was Walter Alfaro. Alfaro singled, driving in Hoslett. Now the score was 5-1.
A comeback in the bottom of the seventh by the Vikings of that magnitude was appearing less likely, and Frank had to consider his arms supply.
Having instructed freshman Declan Kelly, a freshman brought up to the varsity for the playoffs, to warm up earlier, the coach now inserted the righty.
That meant Spence would be available the next day, should the Vikings have to play on the weekend.
"No harm," Gary called out as the first batter got aboard by a walk. Then a two-run single basically put the game out of reach, the score now 7-1. But Declan, with most of his high school career ahead of him, now had CIF postseason experience under his belt, not insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Something to build on in the future.
The final score was 9-3, the Vikings putting up two runs in the bottom of the seventh, and they had to face an elimination game Saturday against San Dieguito Academy.
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