Master’s Trouble Starts With Hallisey, 6-5

Cal Lutheran freshman David Hallisey was expecting to take it easy Wednesday. Hallisey, who usually starts in left field, was given the day off by Coach Al Schoenberger, so he figured his only activity would come during warm-ups, and maybe in the late innings as a pinch-hitter against The Master’s College.

But when second-baseman Mitch Ennis was late because of a statistics midterm, Hallisey was named the starting second baseman five minutes before the game.

Hallisey went on to drive in the tying run and scored the winning run on the back end of a double steal as the Kingsmen broke a six-game losing streak with a 6-5 win in a District III game at Master’s.

With two out in the seventh inning, Hallisey singled to drive in center fielder Scott Francis from second to tie the game at 5. After third baseman Mike Kusmuk’s single advanced Hallisey to third, Kusmuk stole second, and Hallisey stole home when Master’s catcher Steve Reyes attempted to throw out Kusmuk.

“They let the throw go through,” Hallisey said. “Usually they have a guy in front of the bag to cut it off, but this time they didn’t. When I saw that, I broke for home.”

Hallisey wasn’t the only unlikely star for Cal Lutheran (9-17, 4-7 in conference). Pitcher Tim Stange, who was shelled by Lewis and Clark for 11 runs in three innings in his last outing and was sidelined for five weeks with a torn back muscle, pitched shutout ball for five innings and allowed just four hits to raise his record to 2-1.

After relieving starter Kyle Duey to open the fourth, Stange walked the first batter, then retired the next 11. “We usually face a lot of fastball pitchers and he throws a lot of off-speed stuff that’s tough to hit,” Master’s Coach John Zeller said.

Master’s had runners on first and third with one out in the ninth but failed to score. Leadoff hitter Chris Hernandez doubled and stole third and Tony Ellis walked. Kingsmen Pitcher Chris Vanole, who relieved Stange starting the inning, struck out third baseman Todd Skinner and got cleanup hitter Tim Kane to ground out to second base to end the game.

Hernandez was 4 for 5, including a first-inning home run, a double, four steals and two runs batted in. Ellis was 1 for 3 with a two-run home run in the second inning that gave Master’s (12-14, 7-3 in conference) a 5-0 lead.

Cal Lutheran scored its first run in the third inning when catcher Kevin Wynn singled home Chris Portis, and scored again in the fourth when Stacey Kruse doubled in Kusmuk. With runners on second and third in the fifth inning, Kusmuk singled in Scott Francis and Hallisey scored on a throwing error by Ellis to make the score 5-4.

Kusmuk was 3 for 4 with one RBI and one run scored, and Hallisey was 2 for 5 with one RBI and two runs scored.