Baseball team defeats Cypress

After a successful Bay League season, the baseball team played in the second round of CIF playoffs, the round in which the Mustangs were eliminated last season.

The Mustangs defeated Cypress, 8-3, on May 25 on Costa’s home turf.

Starting pitcher senior Drew Van Orden stood out, pitching six and one-third innings with eight strikeouts.

“I felt good. All my stuff was working; it was really the defense that did all the work and made all the plays we had to. If they had made a couple errors it would have really hurt me and I probably would have been taken earlier,” Van Orden said.

Costa’s next game is the CIF quarterfinals today at La Mirada High at 3:15 p.m.

Each team scored runs in the fourth, but the fifth inning was a huge inning for the Mustangs at the plate and in the field.

In the top of the fifth, with two outs, Cypress hit a double into center field, but sophomore center fielder Anthony Lombardo and senior shortstop Kyle Demarco made great relays to senior catcher Jackson Morrow, who made a fantastic play at the plate by tagging out a runner to get the third out of the inning.

“Defense won the game for us. It was a tied ballgame in the fifth inning and Morrow made that great play. I wholeheartedly believe that momentum shift won us the game,” coach Cassidy Olson said.

In the bottom of the fifth, Costa scored five runs, taking an insurmountable 8-3 lead. Senior right-fielder Lucas Whitehill hit a two run home-run to start the rally. Costa won the game, 8-3.

“[Tuesday], I thought we played a complete game. We pitched well, we played defense, and we hit, so all we have to do is prepare for who we specifically are going to play [today],” Olson said.