Facing two very good teams as a barometer of how far it has improved and must improve, the Culver City High School baseball team lost both games to host Mira Costa and visiting Westchester last week.
“We’re an inexperienced team,” Culver head coach Rick Prieto said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
At Mira Costa last week, the Centaurs fell 5-2 to the Mustangs, who are expected to be one of the legitimate contenders for a title in the highly competitive Bay League. At Culver City on Saturday, defending two-time CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division II champion Westchester topped the Centaurs, 5-3.
The Centaurs, 3-3-1, began the Ocean League at home against Hawthorne on Tuesday and visit the Cougars today at 3:15 p.m.
Hawthorne is coming off an 11-1 home rout of Gardena in non-league action last Saturday.
Against the Westchester High School Comets, who will move up to the more highly competitive Division I this year, Culver City and Westchester were tied at three until the Comets scored two runs off losing pitcher Ryan Mattingly in the top of the seventh inning.
Despite the loss, Tyler Adkison had a very good day, going 4-for-4 with a run batted in, two runs scored and two stolen bases.
Darin Sylvester had a double and scored a run, and George Aceves had an RBI base hit for the Centaurs.
Westchester is led by returning two-time all-city player Robert Gsellman, Jr., son of former Culver City High School standout Robert Gsellman, Sr., who led the Centaurs to the Ocean League championship in 1984.
The game was, at least for most of the players, a rematch of last summer’s American Legion Baseball district championship series at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium, won by Westchester.
Against a very strong Mira Costa Mustang team, which is 6-2 and ranked sixth in the CIF-Southern Section Division II, Culver City fell behind 3-0 after two innings. The Centaurs managed two runs but could not catch Mira Costa.
Skylar Blocker drove in a run with a single in the top of the third inning to cut the Mustangs’ lead to 3-1, but Mira Costa came back with a run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the sixth to pull away.
Culver City added its second run in the top of the seventh, when Aceves singled home Adkison.
The Centaurs have only two returning starters – senior third baseman/shortstop Ryan Mulvihill and sophomore third baseman Tyler Adkison. Culver City will spend the season without returning first-team all-Ocean League catcher Garrett Gemgnami, who had surgery on his right shoulder.
Mira Costa, which won its sixth consecutive game after losing its first two, was led by Anthony Lombardo, who went 2-for-2 with a pair of RBI, including a solo home run in the fifth.