HIGH SCHOOL ROUNDUP : Cavers Fall to Madison Despite Jones’ Efforts

Jacque Jones, a small left-hander with a blazing fastball and a hard curve, is one of the premier pitchers in the county. Too bad his San Diego High teammates don’t always treat him as such.

Jones, a junior who has struck out 75 hitters, fanned 12 more in 5 1/3 innings Tuesday. But the Cavers stranded too many runners in a 10-5 City Central League loss to Madison at San Diego.

The Cavers (8-10, 2-3) committed seven errors, four in a disastrous sixth inning that saw the Warhawks (14-6, 4-1) score seven times to break open the game.

San Diego took a 3-2 lead into the inning when Jones (3-3) walked the leadoff batter, then saw his team make back-to-back errors to load the bases.

Jones unraveled as Todd White singled, Mike Hughes struck out, Brian Presley singled and Jesus Martinez bashed a grand slam about 390 feet to fenceless right-center field.

Exit Jones.

“Every time Jacque pitches, we manage to butcher the game up,” said Tom Lopez, Caver coach. “He’ll get 11-12 strikeouts and we’ll make three or four errors when the game’s on the line. It’s a shame to see a guy who pitches like he does have to go through this.”

It took Jones 128 pitches to get 16 outs.

“I felt a little tight at the end,” said Jones, who allowed nine runs, six earned and eight hits to go with his 12 strikeouts and four walks. “I just made a couple of bad pitches at the wrong time.”

And there were a lot (278) of pitches in this game, which lasted three hours and 15 minutes.

Madison starter and winner Presley, a sophomore right-hander, threw 150 pitches and dodged several bullets in improving to 3-0. The Cavers had one fewer hit than the Warhawks, 11-10, but could not put enough of them together and left runners on base (14 total) in all but the first inning.