Prep baseball: CdM just a little short
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Barry Faulkner
SANTA FE SPRINGS - Sure, there was the big inning -- more
specifically, the huge bases-loaded, sixth-inning triple that turned a
2-1 CdM advantage into an insurmountable 4-2 deficit at No. 3-seeded St.
Paul.
But it’s the little things Corona del Mar High baseball coach John
Emme will remember about the Sea Kings’ 5-2 CIF Southern Section Division
IV first-round loss Friday.
More importantly, Emme hopes his eight returning starters will
remember them too.
“That game should be videotaped and shown to Little Leaguers as to how
the little things can win a ballgame,” Emme said after his fifth straight
trip to the postseason ended with a flourish, but not without regret. “If
you don’t do the little things, it’s going to come back and bite you.”
The little things of which Emme speaks included a second-inning error
that led to an unearned run, a botched sacrifice bunt attempt in the
third inning, as well as a handful of other failures in RBI situations,
which resulted in seven stranded runners (three at third base) after St.
Paul took a 1-0 lead.
Emme also mentioned the ill-fated 1-2 pitch to Jimmy Salas with the
bases loaded and one out in the sixth. Salas, a St. Paul senior hitting
better than .500, crushed the wheelhouse offering, which Emme said was
about 14 inches away from its intended target, into the
right-center-field gap to clear the bases and push his season RBI total
to more than 40.
Emme, however, was more proud than disappointed in his team, which, he
said, displayed courage, focus and determination.
“There’s no blame here,” Emme said. “We played an excellent baseball
game and (the Swordsmen) just beat us. We’ve been trying to get the
message across all year to our guys about practicing and trying to
prepare to win. Hopefully, the guys we have coming back -- and there are
a lot of them -- will remember what inner switch they turned on today to
play the way they did. But, you just can’t show up for the playoffs with
that kind of intensity, after not having it all year.”
The Sea Kings were dialed in from the outset, as junior left-hander
Nick Rhodes continued his recent mound mastery through five innings.
Only the aforementioned error, a wild throw into right field on a
would-be force at second, helped the Swordsmen (22-8) avert zeros heading
into the sixth.
Rhodes surrendered just two hits with four strikeouts and no walks his
first five frames and wound up fanning five.
The Sea Kings (12-14) finally rewarded their ace with a pair of runs
in the fifth.
Freshman Wess Presson, who with 31 hits in his first varsity campaign
is perhaps the poster boy for the bright future the program possesses,
walked with one out to start the rally.
Presson stole second and came home on senior Billy Eagle’s RBI triple
into the spacious right-center gap.
Junior catcher Nick Karpe followed with a line drive to right to plate
Eagle and put the visitors on the verge of an upset.
St. Paul right fielder Thomas Tristen fielded the screamer on one
bounce, however, and threw Karpe out at first, robbing him of a hit and
quickly subduing the emotional thunder surging from the visiting dugout
and stands.
“Believe it or not, that may have been the biggest play of the game,”
St. Paul Coach Patrick Fitzsimons said of the single-turned 9-3 RBI
groundout. “That showed we were still in this thing, battling, even
though we had lost the lead.”
The Swordsmen battled back in the sixth. Steve Salas, a sophomore who
started on the mound, ripped his second single of the game to begin the
rally.
After a foul bunt for strike three produced the first out, a swinging
bunt went for an infield single. A low breaking ball hit the next hitter
to load the bases, setting the stage for Jimmy Salas.
“He’s been our best hitter all year and he has done a lot of damage
with two strikes,” Fitzsimons said.
After the three-run triple, Billy Griffith drove an RBI double into
the gap in right center for the final blow.
Sidearm reliever Casey Black, whose senior year included an early
season demotion to the junior varsity, pitched a perfect seventh to pick
up the win. He had gotten the final out in the sixth.
The loss ended what Emme called a phenomenal four-year varsity career
for Eagle, who figures to add a third All-CIF laurel to his prep resume.
Eagle, bound for UCLA, finished with lofty career numbers including 113
hits, a .417 average, 11 homers, 63 RBIs, 75 runs and 29 stolen bases.
Junior shortstop Keith Long, sophomore center fielder Todd Macklin,
sophomore left fielder Danny Whitaker and sophomore third baseman Josh
Bradbury also had hits for CdM Friday.
CIF DIVISION IV
First round
St. Paul 5, Corona del Mar 2
Corona del Mar 000 020 0 - 2 5 1
St. Paul 010 004 x - 5 6 1
N. Rhodes and Karpe; S. Salas, Black (6) and Aguilera. W - Black, 4-2.
L - N. Rhodes, 5-7. 2B - Griffith (SP). 3B - Eagle (CdM), J. Salas (SP).
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