Wasted opportunities cost La Mirada’s baseball team a chance to beat Torrance in the Redondo Tournament on Saturday.
The Matadores collected 10 hits over 10 innings but never pushed across a run after the second in a 3-2 loss at home. La Mirada had three hits in an inning twice, but a 2-4-3 pickoff in the third cost one scoring chance and the winning run was thrown out at the plate in the seventh to waste another.
Torrance went ahead in the 10th when a one-out walk was cashed in on a Dominic Hayes double deep to left field.
“We had our opportunities to win it with a key hit at the right time,” said La Mirada coach Kim Brooks. “We didn;t and they did in the 10th.”
Junior right-hander Tyler Charleton gave up two first-inning runs but pitched well through four innings. He struck out two and got the Torrance hitters to pop up is off-speed pitches, recording seven fly-ball outs.
Darren McElroy relieved Charlton in the fifth, retiring 11 in a row at one point. He struck out five, and the only hit he allowed was Hayes’ double in the 10th.
McElroy recently returned from a finger injjury.
“He’s come back now and he’s doing what he’s supposed to be doing,” Brooks said.
Senior Blake Wilson and sophomore Daniel Jung each had three hits, and Austin Fallcetti had a two-run double in the second.
La Mirada fell to 1-1 in the Redondo Tournament and 8-5 overall. The Matadores are off this week.