LJ baseball 0, Parker 4

Centerfielder Blaise Gimber works a walk in
the fifth inning. (Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

La Jolla's baseball team, young and frisky and sporting a 4-2 record, went to Parker Wednesday night, March 21, and ran into Lancer sophomore right-hander Joseph Cetale, who held them scoreless for 4 1/3 innings.

That in itself was notable, because Viking hitters carried a healthy, if not robust, .296 team batting average coming into the GMC Tournament game at the private school in Linda Vista.

In the end, the visitors were only able to garner three hits in total against three Parker hurlers, and fell, 4-0. 

Cetale, a big, angular lefty whose father came from Colombia, where baseball is growing in cities bordering the Gulf of Mexico, held Coach Gary Frank's lineup to a pair of singles by sophomore Cooper McNally over the first four innings.

Viking third baseman Jake Klimkiewicz, a freshman, added a base knock off Cetale in the fifth for La Jolla's third and final hit.

The game was a reunion of sort, with Parker's battery of Mike Campagna and Cetale coming from playing in La Jolla Mustang youth baseball years ago with Viking Johnny Meyerott and others.

The Vikings finally mounted a threat in the top of the fifth, loading the bases on walks by Blaise Gimber and Aidan "Hype" Suljic before Jake Klimkiewicz bunted cleanly down the third base line to get aboard, moving Gimber and Suljic to second and third, respectively.

Actually, Blaise had stolen second before Suljic's base on balls on a spectacular head-first slide in which he eluded second baseman Tristan Neel's tag by heading around the right side of the bag to reach out and touch it. Leading off from first base, Gimber, who is manning centerfield, took off on a steal attempt while Cetale, facing him as a left-hander, was still in the stretch. The pitcher threw behind the base runner to first baseman Mike Yourg, who had to quickly catch and fire the ball to Neel at second. It was too late.

But with the bases loaded and no outs, La Jolla, uncharacteristically, was unable to punch a run home. The next three batters, in slots nine, one, and two in the order, each struck out, the latter two swinging.

Yourg, the big senior first baseman who is headed to USD on the merits of his hitting, relieved Cetale in only his second appearance of the season after the first strikeout. He then showed a good fastball with his straight overhand motion to fan the next two batters.

Viking starter Koa Scott, like his opposite number on the Lancers a 10th-grader, showed good location in keeping his pitches low in the zone, with an effective curveball. "He's a sophomore, so even he doesn't throw hard (yet), he pitches like a power pitcher, not a finesse pitcher," said La Jolla pitching consultant Jake Grosz. "He comes right at the hitter."

Scott, in his third start of the season, gave up runs in the first, third, and fifth innings. The right-hander came in with an 0-1 record, nine strikeouts and three walks in nine innings, and a 3.11 earned run average.

"I left the one curveball up," remarked Scott with regret, referring either to the RBI single he gave up to Campagna in the bottom of the first or the RBI double he gave up to Sterling Hayes in the bottom of the third.