By Cole Garvey
Online Sports Editor
Mira Costa’s baseball team soared over the Santa Monica Vikings, with Costa receiving strong performances from many key players.
The Mustangs, currently ranked ninth in the nation on baseballamerica.com, defeated the Vikings 4-0 at home on Saturday.
“The pitchers did a great job keeping hitters off balance and giving me opportunities to make plays, as well as the rest of our defense,” junior Chase Meidroth said.
Meidroth got Costa’s offense rolling with a deep triple in the first inning. Senior Bash Alexiades followed up with an RBI double, making the score 1-0. The Mustangs were then loaded the bases and forced a Vikings pitching error, ending the first inning 2-0.
“Our coach preaches defense to us and that’s something we take pride in, so we just try to simplify things when we’re out in the field,” senior Joey Acosta said.
In the second, Costa’s pitching and defense kept the pressure on by forcing easy ground balls and striking out Vikings batters. Costa’s bats fired up again in the bottom of the third inning with a sacrifice fly by Alexiades that scored sophomore Kyle Karros and made the score 3-0. Later in the inning, senior Jake Gordon ripped a single RBI that put Costa up 4-0.
“Coach Keith [Ramsey] has preached pitching and defense since day one of the season, so as a team we do our best to excel in those areas,” Meidroth said.
Santa Monica’s bats finally came alive in the fourth inning. The team loaded the bases with no outs in the inning. Costa was able to save a run and kill the Vikings hitting momentum with a great throw from Alexiades and a diving tag from Gordon. Costa took care of the rest of the Vikings’ hitters in the inning with easy force out plays at first from Karros and senior pitcher Alfonso Cano.
“On a Saturday morning to play an average team, its always tough to bring the same intensity,” Jared Karros said.
Early in the sixth, Cano was replaced by junior pitcher Merrick Baldo, who came into the game and made quick work of the Viking hitters. The Mustangs were unable to put any more runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth, but Baldo put the game on ice in the seventh with a strikeout and a successful double play with help from Meidroth, and junior second baseman Dylan Dennis. The Mustangs finished the game with an easy 4-0 win.
“All I had to do was throw strikes and I knew my defense had me. Even when runners were on, Chase had my back and turned an easy two,” Baldo said.
The Mustangs, now 20-2 overall and 4-0 in Bay League, faced the Inglewood Sentinels at home on Wednesday, looking to keep their undefeated Bay League record intact. However, results were unavailable at the time of publication.
“We were definitely a little flat against Samo, but we were able to string together a few runs to back our great pitching,” Jared Karros said.
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