High School Roundup : La Jolla in the Dark Against Mission Bay

The sun set only minutes after the Mission Bay baseball team’s 17-0 victory over La Jolla Friday. The game at Mission Bay High School took 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The sun set on La Jolla’s offense much earlier. After about, oh, seven pitches.

J.T. Thomas went the distance for Mission Bay, allowing just one hit to pick up the victory and improve his record to 4-1. But Thomas wasn’t overly impressed with himself. Neither was Dennis Pugh, his coach.

“He didn’t pitch as well as he can,” Pugh said.

“I had a rough time,” said Thomas, a senior right-hander. “My control was really wild today.”

His first seven pitches were balls. Then things got smoother. Thomas didn’t allow La Jolla, which dropped to 0-2 in City Western League, to advance a runner past second base. Pugh has grown accustomed to seeing his pitcher struggle with control early in the game.

“It’s normal for him,” Pugh said. “If he gets through that first inning and he’s throwing well, he might be unbelievable. That’s J.T.”

And that, after those seven pitches, was pretty much a wrap. Mission Bay (11-2, 2-0) got the only runs it would need in the second inning, scoring four times. Catcher Tom Lafever tripled, knocking in one run. Thomas singled up the middle to score Lafever.

Mission Bay picked up another run in the third, five in the fourth, two in the fifth and five in the sixth.

The only real question Mission Bay probably left in the minds of the scattered fans Friday was whether or not this type of game is to be expected. Mission Bay, the defending City Western champions, has been picked unanimously by the other coaches in the league to win the title. But by scores such as 17-0?

“I don’t like to beat anybody that way,” Pugh said. “I just think the league is down a little bit. It’s going to take some time (for the other teams) to catch up.”

Mission Bay collected 13 hits and committed no errors.