University’s Lu stops Sage Hill’s perfect start to baseball season

Sage Hill School played near flawless baseball the first four games. The team went into Wednesday having not allowed a run in the last 14 innings.

The scoreless-innings streak ended, and so did Sage Hill’s undefeated start.

University scored a run in the second inning and two more in the third inning, and it held on to beat the host Lightning 3-1 in the semifinals of the Newport Elks Tournament Orange County Division.

The Trojans, not the Lightning (4-1), remained perfect, improving to 6-0. They got 6 2/3 strong innings out of Tyler Lu, who allowed one run and two hits while striking out six.

The right-hander did run into trouble trying to get the third and final out in the bottom of the seventh, walking the No. 7 and 8 hitters. After throwing 10 straight balls, University took Lu out and brought in Harrison Spencer.

He too couldn’t find the strike zone, walking Ryan Chambliss to load the bases. The next batter — Ashwin Chona — produced Sage Hill’s only two hits, a leadoff double in the first and bunt single in the third.

Spencer was able to close things out, inducing a groundout to second base to earn the save.

“It was a fun game,” Sage Hill coach Dominic Campeau said. “[Lu] was dealing. He had a good fastball. He kept it low in the zone. His curveball was just filthy with a super sharp break and he kept locating it.

“We got a run on him in the first inning, but then he settled in nicely. After the third inning, we’re like, ‘I hope he runs out of steam because we can’t figure him out.’”

Lu lost control with two outs in the seventh. He walked Dylan McCarthy and William Ho, putting the tying run on.

Then Lu’s first offering to Chambliss was a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third base. University coach Mike Gerakos had seen enough from Lu, who walked five. With a 1-0 count on Chambliss, Gerakos went to Spencer.

“He tried to rush things a little bit,” Gerakos said of Lu, who threw 90 pitches. “Harrison came in, and it wasn’t pretty, but we’ll take it.”

Lu was the beneficiary of some nice defensive plays by shortstop John Rizzo. He fielded a slow roller and fired to first base to get the second out in the seventh.

In the third and fifth innings, Rizzo showed his range. He gloved grounders up the middle and flipped the ball to second base for a force out.

Rizzo also hit well, finishing three for three with a double. He led off the third inning with a double to left-center field off starter Drake Mossman (1-1), who was charged with two earned runs and six hits in five innings.

Two pitches later, Andie Masotto doubled in Rizzo to put the Trojans up 2-1. They added a third run on Adam Barnett’s sacrifice fly.

University will play at Pacific Coast League rival Irvine for the Newport Elks Tournament Orange County championship on Friday at 3 p.m., while Sage Hill hosts Calvary Chapel in the third-place game.

“I’m really happy with the effort,” said Campeau, whose team gave up its first run since opening the tournament with a 7-4 win against Santa Clarita Golden Valley on March 3. “This is a good [Trojan] team. They’re hot right now.”

david.carrillo@latimes.com

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