BASEBALL: THIRD INNING HAUNTS T.O. AGAIN.

Byline: Heather Gripp Daily News Staff Writer

Chris Cordeiro has called it the unlucky inning. After Tuesday's game against Long Beach Wilson, he's not the only member of the Thousand Oaks High baseball team who feels that way about third innings.

The Lancers gave up six runs - all earned - on six hits in the third inning en route to a 10-2 loss to the Bruins in a Southern Section Division I second-round game at Blair Field. Marmonte League champion Thousand Oaks ends its season with a 19-6 record.

``Yeah, I guess you'd have to say it is sort of unlucky,'' said Thousand Oaks pitcher Tracy Goebel, who gave up 11 hits in seven innings to drop to 7-2.

Wilson sent 10 batters to the plate in the third, doing most of its damage without much power. Todd Marshall started the barrage by beating out a grounder to short. A walk and a double by Chris Miller brought in two to make it 3-0. A blooper to shallow center by Kevin Miller scored another run and Brian Hewitt further widened the gap with a two-run double. The Bruins were up 7-0 by the time Marshall grounded out to end the inning.

``I just got my pitches up and they swung the bats real well,'' Goebel said. ``They're a great team, I give them credit.''

Wilson (24-4) had some misfortune of its own in the fifth when it allowed Thousand Oaks to score two runs on no hits. Travis Rice started the two-out rally by drawing the first walk of the game from Bruins starter Jeff Papazian (8-1). Ryan Donahue followed with a routine grounder to third that was bobbled by the third baseman before the throw to first was apparently lost in the lights by first baseman Billy Gwinn. The ball ended up down the right-field line, allowing Rice to score and Donahue to reach second. A wild throw on Adam Leavitt's chopper back to Papazian brought in another run.

``We were a little discouraged,'' Goebel said, ``but we never gave up, we kept battling. Even in the last inning down by eight, we still were going all out. That's the good thing about this team, our team battles real well.''

The Lancers responded to a three-run Wilson sixth by getting two of their five hits in their final at-bat. Billy Lockin and Adam Leavitt both singled with two outs to put runners on the corners, but reliever Travis Perkins struck out John Smith to end the game.

``I'm not ashamed to lose to a team like this,'' Thousand Oaks coach Bill Sizemore said. ``They battled well and they deserve it.''

Papazian, who struck out six, retired the Lancers in order three times. Jesse Siebers was the first Thousand Oaks batter to reach base when he led off the third with a single. It was the only inning other than the seventh in which the Lancers had more than one hit.