SAN MARCOS — Fighting for a spot in the CIF Open Division baseball playoffs, Carlsbad High School gave itself a chance Friday with a 12-5 North County Coastal League win over San Marcos.
“That’s a 50-point (maximum) win in the power rankings, so it was big,” said Carlsbad coach Scott De Jong.
Going into Friday’s action, Carlsbad was ranked sixth power rankings, but six teams were within .45 of a point of each other. The top eight teams make the Open Division using a ranking system that awards points based on a win or loss and your opponent’s record.
Not only does No. 5-ranked Carlsbad’s win help the Lancers, it kept No. 2-ranked San Marcos (18-6-2, 10-4) from clinching at least a tie for the league title.
The league championship will be decided Tuesday at No. 6 La Costa Canyon when the Mavericks (16-9, 10-4) host San Marcos.
La Costa Canyon beat Poway 5-0 Friday to set up the title showdown.
“We never make things easy on ourselves,” said San Marcos coach Jeff Dufek. “I should be happy. We won a series, took two of three from a really good Carlsbad team. But now we’ve got a big game Tuesday with an LCC team that’s playing very well.”
Carlsbad, which came into Friday’s game hitting .254 as a team, pounded out 16 hits.
“We hadn’t been swinging the bats well for about a month,” De Jong said. “So we had a team meeting on Thursday, talked about a lot of things.
“I challenged the guys. Told them some things they didn’t necessarily like hearing. To their credit, they took it to heart and came out swinging.”
Shortstop Jett Kenady staked the Lancers to a three-run lead in the top of the first with a long three-run homer. It was the fourth of the year for the Cal-bound senior and came on an 0-2 pitch.
“I’d been struggling a little,” said Kenady, a three-sport letterman. “So I went back to my sophomore year, made some adjustments with my legs and head.
“So it felt good to give us a lead.”
Kenady scored twice, drove in three, had two hits and walked twice — once intentionally.
Rod Bering scored twice and drove in one.
Tyler Ward scored three runs and drove in one while Ben Lopez and Max Chase both had two RBIs.
“For sure, we want to play in the Open Division,” Kenady said. “We want to compete with the best teams.”
Trailing 7-0, San Marcos threatened to get back in the game, scoring three runs in the fourth.
The Knights had the bases loaded when Andrew Langer came on in relief and got the final out on a fly ball to center field. The hard-hitting Max Farrell, who had a pair of doubles, scored twice and drove in one, was on deck.
“That was our chance,” Dufek said. “But it didn’t happen and we lost focus a little bit. Our pitchers got a lot of two-strike counts, but I’ll bet Carlsbad hit .500 with the count 0-2.
“We need to clean that up before we play LCC.”
