Madison Gets Into Double Trouble at Mira Mesa

SAN DIEGO — A ground ball to shortstop can mean quite a few things, but most of the time, the results aren’t good for the players who hit them or their teams.

Madison High, the county’s top-ranked baseball team, for example, hit five ground balls to shortstop Tuesday afternoon and found out about the worst of consequences. Four times, Mira Mesa shortstop John Martin grabbed the grounders and began rally-killing double plays.

On the other hand, a grounder to short can turn a game around.

Mira Mesa second baseman Eric Sealey hit one in the bottom of the fifth inning, for example, that helped snap a scoreless tie rather than kill a rally. Mira Mesa scored twice in the inning and went on to record a 5-0 victory on its home field.

Sealey hit his grounder with one out and Jason Valenzano on at first base after drawing a walk from Madison starter and loser Andy Williams. Valenzano broke as if he were going to steal second, and Madison shortstop Mark Hallisey broke to cover the bag. Valenzano stopped, but Hallisey was out of position.

What might have been the start of an inning-ending double play turned into a single for Sealey. Travis Arnold followed with a two-run double to make it 2-0. Mira Mesa (15-6, 7-4) scored three more runs in the sixth inning--Sealey had a two-run single--to put the game away and keep Madison (20-3, 9-2) from clinching the City Eastern League championship.

“This one was frustrating,” Madison Coach Bob Roeder said. “Anytime somebody gets four double plays against you, it’s going to be tough.”

The Martin-to-Sealey-to-Mike Bovee (at first) combination helped make a winner of Arnold (4-1), who allowed five hits but had to strand just two runners to get the shutout. In the first inning, Mira Mesa catcher Albert Domingo helped out when he threw out Hallisey trying to steal.

Then Madison hit into double plays in four of the next five innings. The first three were relatively routine, but the fourth was a beauty, started by Martin, who stayed with a hard grounder by Hallisey up the middle and finished off by Bovee, who scooped a low throw in the dirt.

“The thing that has hurt us this season is that we’ve allowed so many unearned runs,” Mira Mesa Coach Mike Prosser said. “If our defense can hold up, we’re tough.”

Arnold won for the second straight outing. He allowed only one run his last time out. Mira Mesa pitchers have allowed just five runs in their last four games.

Madison, meanwhile, hadn’t been shut out all season and, in fact, hadn’t been held to one run in any game. The Warhawks have built their two-game lead in the City East with four games to play by scoring runs, not by grounding the ball to the shortstop.