Baseball: Amat struggles but beats St. Monica, 8-7

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I spoke too soon in my previous post. After jumping out to a 5-0 lead, Bishop Amat got comfortable and was barely able to beat last-place St. Monica, 8-7, on Tuesday.

‘They just thought [St. Monica] would roll over,’ after getting a big lead, Bishop Amat coach Andy Nieto said of his players. ‘But St. Monica has pride. They play hard and they played hard for seven innings.’

Amat (21-4, 11-0), ranked No. 19 in the Southland by The Times, lost its focus in this one. Three errors in the fourth and fifth innings allowed St. Monica (4-16-1, 1-10) to tie the score at 6-6.

‘I don’t care who you are, if you are not focused you’ll lose in the first round of the playoffs,’ said Nieto, who last season guided Amat to the Southern Section Division V title in his first year at the school. Amat is again favored to win the division this year.

Amat regained the lead in the sixth inning. Senior Jordan Fox led off with a single, stole second and third base and then scored the go-ahead run on a passed ball. The UC Irvine-bound first basemen finished with two hits, two runs, two stolen bases, two RBIs and one inside-the-park home run. He now has 16 multi-hit games on the season.

Designated hitter Keith Murakami gave the Lancers an 8-6 cushion later that inning with a sacrifice bunt that scored Andrew Mistone.

Sophomore Brandon McNitt, pictured, struggled to get the final three outs -- he gave up one run and had the tying run in third base in the seventh -- but improved his record to 5-1 and helped Amat remain unbeaten in Del Rey League play.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was a win. Amat will look to finish the season on a 12-game winning streak when it travels to St. Monica on Thursday at 3 p.m.

-- Jaime Cardenas