1974 Baseball: Oceanside and Ciammachilli Come Close

For the first time in the San Diego Section’s 14 years, a team not from the city or the eastern suburbs had reached the playoff finals.

Twenty-six squads, including Hoover, Helix, El Capitan, Crawford, Point Loma, San Diego, Santana, Kearny, Clairemont, and University had won or gotten to the championship game from 1961-73, and they were joined this season by a 27^th, Patrick Henry.

A 28^th, the North County Oceanside Pirates, who had become a power in track and field and was a stalwart in football, broke the City-East lock and became the first from their corner of the area.

The Pirates, behind righthanded pitcher Frank Ciammachilli, parlayed a 13-1 Avocado League and overall 20-3 regular season into a march through three rounds of the playoffs.

The Pirates came up short  as an overworked Ciammachilli finally tired and was beaten in the finals.

Cimmachilli’s remarkable season included a 15-2 record, 168 innings pitched, and 148 strikeouts

4/30/74

Willie Brigham singled, stole second base, and scored on Dorman Malone’s single in the bottom of the 10th inning and San Diego, with Brigham going  the distance on the mound, defeated Western League co-leader Clairemont, 6-5.

—Kearny won its sixth game in a row, 5-3, over Madison and moved into first place after Clairemont lost.

—Bob Robinson of Mission Bay shut out La Jolla, 2-0, on one hit.

—Jeff Byrd’s two-hit pitching and a home run by Gary Armstrong ensured El Capitan’s 7-0 win over Helix, giving the Vaqueros undisputed possession of first place in the Grossmont League with an 8-3 record.

5/3/74

With one week remaining, Crawford (13-1-1) was the only team to claim a league championship, their seventh in the last 11 Eastern League campaigns.

Reese Mitchell improved his pitching record to 9-3, Dave Engle was 3 for 4, and the Colts beat Hoover, 6-3.

5/7/74

Oceanside’s Frank Ciammachilli was 12-1 and his earned-run average 0.65 after Ciammachilli’s four-hitter defeated Vista, 4-0, and the Pirates clinched a second straight Avocado League championship.

Oceanside’s 11^th consecutive victory snapped the Panthers’ eight-game winning streak.

—Dan Flanagan’s four-hitter stopped Castle Park, 3-1, and Hilltop clinched a tie for the Metropolitan League championship.

–Bonita Vista beat Sweetwater, 6-5, to stay one game behind the Lancers, who will face the Barons in the final regular-season game in three days.

5/8/74

Clairemont gained a share of the Western League championship behind Gary Stogstill’s six-hit, 1-0 shutout of Kearny.

Kearny’s Billy Joseph allowed only two hits and struck out 10 but gave up the game’s only run in the fourth inning when Steve Agosto singled with two outs, went to second when Steve Splitt was hit by a pitch, and scored on Ron Molina’s single.

The Chieftains and University each finished with a 10-6 league record, but Clairemont held two league wins over the Dons.

—Crawford beat Patrick Henry, 4-3, in 10 innings and the Colts 14-1-1 record was the best in the 14-season history of the Eastern League.  A tie with Morse was not included in the standings.

The 1965 Crawford team and 1968 Hoover each posted a 13-2 league record.

—A 4-0 win over El Cajon Valley gained El Capitan (10-4) a share of the Grossmont League title with Monte Vista, 1-0 winner over Santana. The Vaqueros won or shared the championship six of the last 12 years.

FINAL REGULAR-SEASON STANDINGS

EASTERN

SOUTHERN

COASTAL DIVISION

MOUNTAIN DIVISION

WESTERN

GROSSMONT

METROPOLITAN

COAST

AVOCADO

5/14/74

SAN DIEGO SECTION PLAYOFFS

CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP

ARMY-NAVY (12-4) 1, RAMONA (13-9) 0, @SAN MARCOS HIGH

Robbie Temple gave up five hits and earned the victory when Joe Smith doubled in the fifth inning, advanced on Scott Kelleher’s infield single, and scored when an attempted pickoff throw at first was wild.

CLASS AA

FIRST ROUND

San Marcos (11-13) 2, @Crawford 16.

Dean Hall scored three runs and had five of the Colts’ 16 hits.

Kearny 2, @Hilltop (16-6) 0.

Billy Joseph faced the minimum 21 batters and hurled a no-hitter, striking out 10 and walking one, erased on a double play.

Joseph’s near-perfect outing marked the second playoff no-hitter since Hoover’s Ken Kollmeyer blanked Granite Hills in  1970.

Vista (13-9) 2, @Patrick Henry 15.

Mike Proctor homered, doubled, and drove in six runs for the Patriots.

El Cajon Valley 8, @Clairemont (18-8) 6.

The Braves exploited Clairemont pitching for five home runs over the Chieftains’ inviting, 250-foot leftfield fence, including two by No. 9 hitter Dan Truttman.

Poway (14-10) 12, @Oceanside 13, 9 innings.

The Pirates survived despite nine errors and then scored the winning run on a Poway error in the second extra inning.

El Capitan 7, @Hoover (15-8) 5, 11 innings.

Joe Unden had five hits in six times at bat—triple, two doubles, and two singles—including the one-base hit that drove in the winning run for the Vaqueros.

University (16-8) 1, @La Jolla 2.

Tom Watson halted Uni at seven hits and drove in both Vikings runs.

Bonita Vista 9, @Monte Vista (16-7) 4.

The Barons stunned the Monarchs with five runs in the third inning.

5/15/74

QUARTERFINALS

Oceanside 2, El Capitan (18-8) 1, @MiraCosta College

The Pirates won their 15^th game in a row as pitcher Frank Ciammachilli upped his record to 14-1, cuffing the Vaqueros on two hits and winning his second game in two days.

Rick Ward singled to lead off the game, stole his 28^th base and came home on David Meyer’s single, and Ward doubled in the winning run in the seventh inning.

Bonita Vista 5, La Jolla (13-12) 4, @San Diego State.

Winning pitcher Jim Davis doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning, advanced on an infield out, and scored the winning run on Donald Slater’s single.

Crawford 11, Kearny (14-10) 8, @Mesa College.

The No. 1 seed Colts were outhit 11-7 but won a three-hour battle, coming from 9-7 behind with two runs each in the sixth and seventh innings.

Patrick Henry 3, El Cajon Valley (11-12) 2, @University of San Diego.

The Patriots eliminated the Braves by scoring two unearned runs in the fifth inning.

5/17/74

SEMIFINALS

Crawford (21-5-1) 2, Patrick Henry 6, @San Diego State.

The Patriots, losers of two, one-run decisions to the Colts in the Eastern League race, led, 2-1, when they got to Crawford ace Reese Mitchell for four runs in the fifth inning.

Matt Powell, who pitched for Hoover in the 1973 championship game and usually came on in relief for the Patriots, held the Colts to five hits in his first start since the April Lions Tournament.

Rich Cosio drove in three runs with a pair of doubles and Matt Proctor slugged a 380-foot, three-run home run in support for Powell.

Trailing, 6-1, in the seventh Mitchell homered for Crawford.

Oceanside 11, Bonita Vista (16-8) 6, 8 innings, @Mesa College.

The Pirates won their 16^th game in a row and Frank Ciammachilli improved to 15-1 on the mound, winning his third game in four days, and hit a bases-empty home run for.

Ciammachilli started the Barons’ downfall in the eighth inning when he broke a 5-5 tie with a 340-foot home run.  Steve Gelfarb’s bases loaded triple and Joe Gonzales’ run-scoring single sealed the victory

Ciammachilli had relieved starter David Drake in the sixth inning.

5/18/74

CLASS AA CHAMPIONSHIP

Patrick Henry (21-8) 7, Oceanside (23-4) 3, @San Diego State.

“I thought we’d be a .500 team,” said coach Bob Imlay of his Patrick Henry team that survived four rounds of playoffs to emerge as the fifth second place (Eastern League) squad in 14 years to win the San Diego Section title.

Shortstop Rich Cosio’s 400-foot, three-run home run in the fifth inning broke a 3-3 tie and dealt Oceanside ace Frank Ciammachilli a rare defeat.

“We had a lot of problems and a lot of question marks,” said Imlay, citing inexperience, injury (shortstop Cosio, sore arm and out of position at first base; Casey Clark, regular first baseman, ankle in cast), and grade problems when the season began.

The Patriots’ Dave Disbro, who helped Imlay develop his pitching staff,  survived a two-run second inning and settled down to win his ninth game in 12 decisions.

“Disbro was about ready to come out,” said Imlay after his pitcher retired 16 of the last 20 batters he faced.

“It’s just unfortunate that he had to throw so much this week,” said Pirates coach Bill Williams, referencing Ciammachilli’s fourth time on the mound in five days.