San Diego Prep Baseball : Christian Suffers Its First City Central League Loss

When the Christian High School baseball team (7-1, 12-7) opened a 9-1 lead in the fifth inning of its City Central League game against Hoover on Wednesday, it must have felt confident it would return home that evening with its perfect league record still intact.

That was until Hoover scored 10 runs over the final three innings to beat the first-place Patriots, 11-10, at Hoover High.

The Patriots, who got a leadoff home run from Bill Donley, led 3-0 after one inning and had leads of 9-1 and 10-4.

The Cardinals (5-3, 10-9) had two outs and nobody on in the sixth inning when Ty Murphy singled and scored on a double by Sam Aguirre. Jeff Shepherd made the score 10-7 with a two-run homer and Sal Ceballos followed with a solo homer to cut the Christian lead to two.

In the seventh inning, Hoover again had two out and nobody on. After a walk, Murphy tripled to cut the lead to one run. It was Murphy’s fourth hit of the game. Aguirre beat out a slow grounder to third and went to second on a throwing error. Aguirre went to third on a wild pitch.

Christian brought in ace relief pitcher Kevin Bell to stop the Hoover rally. Bell entered the game with a 2-0 record and 1.57 earned-run average. He proceeded to go three balls and no strikes on the first two batters he faced, Shepherd and Ceballos, before issuing both intentional walks. Mark Gorence followed with a game-winning single, his third hit of the day.

In other City Central League action:

Saint Augustine 6, Crawford 5--Art Schiele singled home Mickey Stevens in the seventh inning to give the Saints (3-5, 3-18-1) the win at the Colina Del Sol Recreation Center. With the game tied, 5-5, Stevens walked to lead off the seventh and advanced to second on a ground out. With two out, Schiele singled to win the game. Crawford (4-4, 8-13) had a 3-0 lead, but Saint Augustine scored two in the second and tied the game in the third on Pat Heffler’s first home run of the season.

Lincoln 24, San Diego 6--The Hornets (5-3, 13-6-1) had 22 hits en route to their easy victory over the last-place Cavers (0-8, 4-17) at San Diego. The victory moved Lincoln into a second-place tie with Hoover. Lincoln plays host to Hoover on Friday.

In the City Western League:

Clairemont 5, La Jolla 4--Orlando Henry had two hits and two RBIs to lead the fourth-ranked Chiefs (7-1, 16-6) past the Vikings (2-6, 2-17) at La Jolla.

University City 6, Kearny 4--The Centurions (5-3, 11-11) kept their playoff hopes alive by defeating the Komets (1-7, 8-11) at University City.

In the City Eastern League:

Patrick Henry 5, Madison 4--The top-rated Patriots (8-0, 18-1) survived a last-inning rally by Madison (3-5, 12-8) to keep their perfect league record in a game at Madison. The Patriots led 5-1 in the final inning before Patriot pitcher Pat Vinton (2-0) walked the first two Madison hitters. Following a strikeout and a fielder’s choice at second base, Jimmy Dean singled home a run. James Moliere singled to load the bases. John McRea doubled home two runs, but Moliere was thrown out at the plate to end the game on a relay that went from left fielder Doug Owens to third baseman Eric Karros to catcher Danny Martinez.

Serra 2, Point Loma 1--The Conquistadors (3-5, 8-12) moved into a third-place tie by defeating the Pointers (3-5, 11-7) at Serra.

In the Grossmont League:

Granite Hills 10, El Cajon 0--At Granite Hills, Eagle pitcher Aaron Petrich (6-0) threw a two-hitter, struck out nine and walked none in gaining the win.

Mount Miguel 4, Grossmont 3--Ron Jaecks and Mark Melanese hit solo home runs to power the Matadors (5-7, 8-13) to the win at Grossmont. The Foothillers (6-7, 10-12) outhit Mount Miguel, 11-5.

Valhalla 8, Monte Vista 6--Sam Gammo hit two home runs--a two-run shot in the first and solo blast in the seventh--to lead the seventh-ranked Norsemen (9-3, 17-4) past the Monarchs (2-11, 5-16) at Monte Vista. Mark Warren (9-2) pitched the final 3 innings to pick up the win.

Santana 11, El Capitan 4--The 10th-ranked Sultans (9-3, 16-6) remained in a second-place tie with Valhalla by defeating the Vaqueros (5-8, 7-15) at Santana.