Baseball: Alemany can’t handle pitcher Thomas Eshelman

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There’s a reason Carlsbad pitcher Thomas Eshelman signed with Cal State Fullerton. He’s pretty impressive. On Monday in an opening game of the Hard 9 National Classic, Eshelman struck out 15 and walked none to help Carlsbad knock off Mission League power Mission Hills Alemany, 1-0.

The only run of the game came home on Nick Anderson’s sixth-inning home run. Alemany’s Cory Messmore pitched well, throwing a complete game while allowing three hits and striking out three.

Another Mission League team, West Hills Chaminade, was beaten by Surprise (Ariz.) Valley Vista, 4-2.

Carlsbad moves on to a 4 p.m. game on Tuesday against El Toro, which scored six runs in the sixth to defeat Midlothian (Va.) James River, 6-0. Tyler Brashears threw five shutout innings and Logan Tomlinson had two hits. Spanish Fork (Utah) defeated Ocean View, 8-0.

Bishop Amat defeated Garden Grove Pacifica, 9-5, to advance to a 1 p.m. quarterfinal against host Esperanza, which scored three runs in the sixth to pull out a 5-3 win over Peoria (Ariz.) Sunrise Mountain. Kevin Viers and Mitch Christensen had two hits apiece. Brandon Luper struck out nine and allowed two hits.

Bradenton (Fla.) IMG Academies defeated Cypress, 5-3.

-- Eric Sondheimer