A Super performance in Sage Hill’s 16th straight win

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — It started out like a walk in the park for Sage Hill School’s baseball team on Tuesday.

Walk is what the first five Lightning batters did in the top of the first inning on the road against archrival St. Margaret’s. Without having to put the ball in play, the Lightning went up by two runs.

When Sage Hill hit the ball, it added two more runs in the first inning. The support proved more than enough for Brett Super to stay perfect, as well as his team in Academy League play.

Super went the distance, striking out five in a 7-1 win at San Juan Sports Park. The victory marked Sage Hill’s 16th in a row, a school record.

The right-hander lost his shutout in the seventh inning after Sage Hill was unable to turn a game-ending double play. Super didn’t help his cause when he gave up a single and walk to the first two batters in the seventh.

Despite not recording his third shutout, Super said he was happy about his performance on the mound, he only allowed three hits and one walk, and at the plate, he went two for three. The left-handed hitting senior’s biggest hit was a solo home run over the right-field fence in the fifth inning.

More impressive than his second homer of the season was that Super became the second Sage Hill starter to get to 7-0. The other is freshman left-hander Ashwin Chona, who will take the mound Friday, when the Tartans play at Sage Hill at 3:15 p.m.

“Chona’s a stud,” Super said.

With Super and Chona, Sage Hill appears on its way to a second straight undefeated league title under Coach Dominic Campeau. Sage Hill has been unbeatable since it dropped the second game of a nonleague doubleheader to Los Angeles Windward on Feb. 27.

Sage Hill (17-1, 5-0 in league), ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 poll, had been winning without the services of UC Berkeley-bound Conner Bock the past couple of weeks. Sage Hill welcomed him back last Friday in a pinch-hit role.

In the senior’s first at-bat since undergoing an undisclosed surgery, Bock broke a 3-3 tie in the sixth with a pinch-hit single against Oxford Academy. Sage Hill went on to prevail, 6-3, at home, beating Oxford Academy for the second time in four days.

“The last two weeks were pretty tough with Conner getting injured and he couldn’t play,” Campeau said. “We had to change a little bit of our philosophy, our team approach, which is more working the count, trying to get on base, play small ball, knowing that our big boy is not there to hit balls out of the park. We survived those two weeks without him.

“I was looking at him and he could barely walk in the dugout. Conner Bock at 50% is still better than most players in the Academy League. We know he’s going to be ready to go full speed before we play Crean [Lutheran] in two weeks.”

Sage Hill will need Bock during the showdowns with No. 1 Crean Lutheran on May 3 and 6, the final two league games. Bock picked up his second run batted in in as many games, coming on a first-inning walk, then went hitless in his next three at bats.

For now, Bock is using his hands more until he gets his timing and swing down. He is a difference maker. He batted .333 and led the area in home runs (six), runs batted (34), runs (31) and slugging percentage (.717) a year ago, lifting the Lightning to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs.

Six games remain before Sage Hill makes a postseason run. Five of those are in league.

The Tartans hope to play spoiler. Coach Mel Taylor said he started a freshman, James Mott, in the first game with the Lightning because the team has lost a couple of starters to injuries, Jake Krutcik (knee) and Braydon Cancellieri.

Mott’s debut was shaky. He went four innings, walking six and giving up three hits. The hardest hit ball off Mott (0-1) was a triple to right-center field by Edward Pelc, who went two for three.

“They did what they needed to do to win. We helped them at the beginning of the game,” said Taylor, whose team dropped to 2-3 in league, pretty much out of contention for first. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the last two games of the season that [Sage Hill and Crean Lutheran] play will be for our league championship.”

—

Academy League

Sage Hill 7, St. Margaret’s 0

SCORE BY INNINGS

Sage Hill 411 010 0 – 7 5 1

St. Margaret’s 000 000 0 – 0 3 2

Super and Bush; Mott, L. Smith (5) and A. Smith. W – Super, 7-0. L – Mott, 0-1. 3B – E. Pelc (SH). HR – Super (SH).