LIONS TOURNAMENT AA FINAL : Torrey Pines Tidies Up With Defeat of USDHS

CHULA VISTA —  The Lions Tournament is not supposed to be like this.

The tournament that forces the finalists to play five games in five days is supposed to be a nightmare for pitchers and a free-for-all for batters.

But Torrey Pines’ 4-0 victory over University of San Diego High in the AA final at Hilltop High was actually played as if everyone had had three days of rest. The game lasted only 90 minutes and included no errors.

USDHS Coach Dick Serrano couldn’t figure it out.

“It should have been a hitting game this late in the tournament,” said Serrano, whose team fell to 14-4.

But Serrano’s team simply ran into a pitcher and team with something to prove.

Torrey Pines (9-8) began the tournament with a 0-3 record in the Palomar League. But after losing their first game to Escondido, the Falcons won four in a row, and their pitching staff allowed just one run in their last 23 innings.

In his previous two starts, Torrey Pines pitcher Antony Napoli had allowed seven runs in a third of an inning against Rancho Buena Vista and four runs in four innings in the tournament loss to Escondido.

“I wanted to pitch as well as everybody else did,” said Napoli, who raised his record to 2-4 with a two-hitter. “I didn’t want to disappoint anybody.”

Napoli attributed Saturday’s loss against Escondido to a non-existent curveball. And Wednesday, the pitch deserted him again.

“I was just throwing high fastballs,” Napoli said. “They were just hitting it right at us.”

And when they weren’t, Torrey Pines center fielder Preston Byrnes was running them down. Byrnes made six putouts, two spectacular ones.

Twelve of USDHS’s outs came on fly balls to the outfield.

“We couldn’t get the key hit, and they made some nice plays,” Serrano said. “We were swinging underneath the ball.”

The game was scoreless until the fourth, when Mark Swain’s double, Britton Scheibe’s bunt single, Napoli’s RBI single and Mike Staffieri’s fly ball gave Torrey Pines a 2-0 lead. Three singles, a Nate Uter ground ball and a Scheibe fly made it 4-0 in the fifth.

“We showed we can play with (league leader Mt. Carmel),” Byrnes said. “It feels like we’re finally coming together.”