Prep Baseball : Everything Goes Wrong Until the 10th : It Takes Murphy’s Double to Give Mission Viejo a 6-5 Victory

How inappropriate that Mission Viejo High School’s Brendan Murphy should line a clean double to right field in the bottom of the 10th inning Wednesday to score Don Roberson with the winning run in the Diablos’ 6-5 South Coast League victory over Irvine.

The way things were going, the game would have more appropriately ended on a bad-hop hit or a fluke defensive mistake or a controversial call by an umpire. Both teams scored their share of unconventional runs at Mission Viejo.

But in the end, it all added up to another win for the Diablos and their pitcher Bob Brucato, who went the distance, allowed 11 hits and struck out five to improve his record to 9-0.

It also created a three-way tie for second place in league between Mission Viejo, Irvine and Laguna Hills, all 7-4. Irvine plays Laguna Hills Friday, and Mission Viejo will meet last-place San Clemente. First-place El Toro closes the season against Capistrano Valley.

It appeared the Vaqueros would be able to hold on to second place when they scored two runs with the help of a Diablo error in the top of the eighth inning.

Bobby Hamelin and Rick Smetenka each singled, putting runners on first and second, but Steve Habermehl lined out to second baseman Bob Doran, who, in an attempt to double Smetenka off first, threw the ball into the Irvine dugout.

After a long discussion with Bob Flint, Irvine coach, and Mission Viejo’s Ron Drake, the umpires allowed Hamelin to score. The also awarded Smetenka third (two bases each). Smetenka then scored on a wild pitch.

Then things really got strange.

Roberson singled with one out in the bottom of the eighth and, an out later, Robert D’Marino sent a grounder toward Hamelin, the Vaqueros’ first baseman.

The ball took a bad hop under Hamelin’s glove and headed toward Habermehl in right field, at which point it squirted out of his mitt. Roberson scored and D’Marino made it all the way to third.

Doran, behind 0-2 on the count, then hit a chopper to shortstop and dove into first base just in front of Mike Henigan’s throw, allowing D’Marino to score the tying run.

Doran made three errors in the game but also came up with two excellent defensive plays, cutting down Jim Murphy on a relay throw to the plate in the ninth inning and nailing Habermehl on a relay to third in the fourth.

D’Marino had three hits and knocked in the first two Diablo runs with a second-inning single, and Brucato, Roberson and Sean Campbell each added two hits. George Kouteras led Irvine with three hits, and Habermehl and Steve Lipton each had two hits and an RBI.

In other South Coast League action:

El Toro 7, San Clemente 3--The Tritons committed six errors, including two in the sixth inning, to the Chargers the win at home. In the sixth, El Toro scored four runs to break a 3-3 tie. Though El Toro got three hits in the sixth, only one Charger batter, Mike Gonzales, earned an RBI.

Junior Richard Faulks struck out five and scattered five hits to get the win. Shortstop Doug Barron was 3 for 4 with a triple and two RBIs.

Laguna Hills 5, Dana Hills 3--Howard Gasser hit a three-run home run in the third inning to pace the Hawks to a win at Dana Hills. Gasser’s homer erased a 2-1 Dana Hills’ lead that had been built on Bill Lasher’s two-run home run in the second.