Believe it:Mesa scores 20 runs

COSTA MESA — Gabe Sanchez wasn’t trying to hit a home run.

Leading off the bottom of the first inning for the Costa Mesa High baseball team, the junior right-fielder was just trying to get on base.

Instead, Sanchez touched them all, depositing a fastball over the right-field fence.

“I thought I had popped out,” Sanchez said. “It was an inside pitch, and I’m not really an inside-pitch hitter.”

Batting trends didn’t matter at the Beach Pit Classic on Tuesday for the Mustangs. Not with the way Sanchez and his Costa Mesa High teammates swung the stick.

The Mustangs, who had come into the game with eight home runs on the season, clubbed five of them in a 20-6 romp over Beckman.

Costa Mesa (10-7) plays Aliso Niguel today at 11 a.m., at Costa Mesa High in the tournament fifth-place game.

Sanchez’s shot was just the start. Before the first inning had ended, John Rybarczyk had hit the first of his two home runs and Costa Mesa had put up 11 runs on Beckman (7-8).

Rybarczyk and Chad Peterson added homers in the third, and Matt Pisarski hit a fifth-inning grand slam for Costa Mesa.

The long balls by Sanchez, Peterson and Pisarski (five RBIs) were their first of the season. Rybarczyk added to his team-high total of seven home runs.

“They joined my club,” Rybarczyk said with a smile. “I don’t know, it’s fun. I kind of had a rough day [Monday], so I just wanted to turn it around and hit some balls hard.”

The 20 runs was easily a season-high for the Mustangs, who beat the Patriots for the third time in four times this season. Two of the previous games had been decided by a single run, but this time Costa Mesa left no doubt.

Andrew Millian (3-2) pitched four innings for the win.

“Up and down the lineup, we had some good swings,” Costa Mesa Coach Jim Kiefer said. “You get out to a lead like that, and a lot of times a team will wane in its intensity. I thought we did a good job of maintaining it throughout [the game].”

No. 2 hitter Zach Von Berg, who was a home run short of hitting for the cycle, was one of three Mustangs — along with Sanchez and Rybarczyk — to score three times. He said the team had to come out strong after a tough 9-4 loss to San Clemente on Monday night.

“It seemed like we were kind of slow,” Von Berg said. “Our fire wasn’t there.”

Kiefer wants the fire to be there all the time. In the postgame meeting after walloping Beckman, he told the players they needed to play every game with that kind of intensity.

The Mustangs want to at least tie the single-season Costa Mesa High record of 17 wins in a season. More offensive fireworks like those against Beckman should help that cause.

“We want to take every game like it’s the biggest game of the year,” Rybarczyk said. “Our coach told us we can’t wait three innings to start scoring runs.”

Every Mustangs starter, also including Garrick Williams, Millian, Luke Boulger and Cody Waldron, scored at least one run. Williams was two for five with a double and two RBIs.

Beach Pit ClassicFifth-place semifinal

Costa Mesa 20,

Beckman 6

Score by Innings

Beckman 0 4 1 0 1 0 0 - 6 8 4

CM 11 1 3 0 5 0 x - 20 17 1

Garcia, Zamora (1), Crouch (4), Trinkwon (6) and Valdez; Millian, Boulger (5), Pisarski (7) and Pisarski, Sanchez (6). W -- Millian, 3-2. L -- Garcia, 0-3. 2B -- Schaefer (B), Peterson (CM), Williams (CM), Waldron (CM), Von Berg (CM). 3B -- Von Berg (CM). HR -- Schwartz (B), Schaefer (B), Sanchez (CM), Rybarczyk (CM) 2, Peterson (CM), Pisarski (CM).