Baseball: Mater Dei’s lead shrinks, Colton leaves with leg injury

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Placentia Valencia pushed across three runs in the bottom of the third to cut Mater Dei’s lead in half in the championship game of the Anaheim Lions tournament at Glover Stadium.

Michael Lopez doubled down the left-field line to score Andrew Trevino from first. With two outs, Adam Bartczak grounded a ball into the hole and shorstop Tyler Rahmatulla was unable to field the backhand, allowing two runs to score and cutting the deficit to 6-3.

Mater Dei then lost one of its big bats in the top of the fourth, when Scott Colton injured his left leg while trying to break up a double play at second base. He was successful in causing the second baseman to drop the throw, but he couldn’t get back to his feet.

Colton, a senior, has three home runs in the tournament, all coming in successive at bats.

He was replaced by his younger brother, Tommy, who scored on an infield single by Kevin Francke to push the Monarchs’ advantage back to four runs.

-- Dan Arritt

-- Image from www.lighthouseministries.org