HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Inzunza Wins Again on Green Grass at St. Augustine, 8-0
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As a promising young baseball player growing up in Tijuana, Marco Inzunza did not always have the luxury of playing on grass fields.
“Oh no,” he said, recalling the days of rock infields. “But this is beautiful here.”
Here would be Hickman Field in Clairemont, the home of Inzunza’s St. Augustine baseball team and the site of Inzunza’s first high school shutout.
Utilizing the lush grass Tuesday, Inzunza stifled West Hills, 8-0, on five hits as St. Augustine advanced to the A Division semifinals in the 42nd annual Lions/Mike Morrow Tournament.
Saints (12-2, 3-0 in the tournament) will play La Jolla this morning at 10:30 at Hickman with the hope of advancing to the afternoon (2 p.m.) final at the same site. St. Augustine won the A Division title in 1990 and the tournament was rained out last year.
Should Saints get to the final today, Inzunza will not be around. He has an appointment to register at the Universidad de Tijuana, where he plans to major in accounting so he can help in his father’s auto parts store.
Inzunza, you see, still lives in Tijuana with his parents and younger sister. He commutes every day to St. Augustine, following the lead of his older brother, Jorge Inzunza, who was 17-2 as a two-year starter for Saints and is now playing for San Diego Mesa College.
Inzunza said he will probably play next year for Tijuana. That is, unless an American college offers him a scholarship or a professional team wants to pay him to stay on this side of the border.
The way he threw against West Hills, one of those later possibilities might just become a reality. Inzunza, a senior right-hander, improved to 5-1. He won twice and earned five saves last year.
“We used him in relief all last year,” St. Augustine Coach Mike Stephenson said. “I didn’t know if he’d be strong enough to start. Shows you what I know.”
Inzunza’s strength is his control.
“He was paintin’ today,” said West Hills Coach Jeff Boutelle of Inzunza’s knack for nipping corners of the strike zone.
Said Inzunza: “I try to get it up there, but I’m not a fastball pitcher. I try to work it in and out and let my infielders do (the rest). They do a good job.”
West Hills had won only nine games in its first two years of existence, but the Wolf Pack entered Tuesday’s game 6-6-1 and 2-0 in the tournament. Inzunza, though, was never threatened.
He threw 88 pitches and faced only four batters over the minimum. Erik Priddy, who tripled in the first inning, and Brian Qualin, who singled and advanced on a wild pitch in the seventh, were the only West Hills players to get past first base.
Meanwhile, imaginative St. Augustine scored on a wild pitch, a double steal off a first-and-third situation and a squeeze bunt to make it 3-0 after four innings.
Saints then turned conventional. Craig DaLuz had a RBI triple and John Mozerka a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Mozerka drove in two with a double and scored on a double by Memo Lopez in the seventh.
Inzunza gave up two of five hits in the seventh but closed with two of his five strikeouts.
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