San Diego Prep Baseball : Clairemont Uses 16 Walks to Upset Mira Mesa

SAN DIEGO —  Clairemont High School didn’t exactly overpower its opponents to win the Crawford Tournament championship Saturday afternoon at Mira Mesa.

In the final against Mira Mesa, the Chieftains had only five hits, but upset the seventh-ranked Marauders, 15-8. Mira Mesa had been undefeated in its first six games.

Clairemont drew 16 walks from Marauder pitchers and survived a seven-run second inning by Mira Mesa. The Chieftains scored in every inning except the seventh, with six of their runs coming in the sixth.

Clairemont’s Jeff Sturch hit a three-run home run in the fifth and had two hits and five RBIs for the day.

Before the Chiefs advanced to the final, they had to finish a suspended game against Christian. The teams battled Friday to an 11-11 tie before the game called in the eighth inning because of darkness. The Patriots scored 11 runs on four hits. Clairemont helped Christian by walking 13 batters, hitting two others and making five errors.

“We did a lot of strange things,” Clairemont Coach Hugh McMillan said.

But the Chiefs were able to push across a run in the bottom of the ninth and win, 12-11. Second baseman Brett McFeely’s sacrifice fly drove home Mario Flores with the tie-breaking run. Flores began the inning with a walk, stole second and moved to third on an error.

Flores was a big factor against the Patriots. He had three hits and four RBIs, as did shortstop Andy Roberts.

Reggie Leslie (4-3) was the winner in both games for Clairemont (5-3).

In the consolation finals:

Crawford 5, University City 4--The Colts capitalized on five Centurion errors at University City (3-5). Catcher Ron Marr had two RBIs for Crawford, and right-hander Scott Northeimer (1-1) pitched a complete game for the Colts (3-4).

In other action:

Orange Glen 8, Escondido 1

--The Patriots beat their crosstown rivals at Orange Glen . It was Wscondido’s sixth loss in seven games. Todd Parsley had a bases loaded triple for the Patriots.