Self-Inflicted Misery Sinks Crespi, 5-3

Scott Muckey didn’t need to look at the score book or sneak a peek at the computer printout. The Crespi High baseball coach didn’t even need time to scratch his chin. Crespi’s casualty count on the basepaths made reflecting on the outcome easy.

“Wasn’t it kind of obvious?” Muckey asked rhetorically. “We sure didn’t help ourselves. We ran ourselves right out of the game.”

While Muckey’s team ran amok, El Dorado received five innings of hitless relief pitching and a two-run home run from Steve Gill and defeated Crespi, 5-3, in a Southern Section 4-A quarterfinal Thursday at Valley College.

If anybody was filling out a report card on Crespi--which requested that the game be moved to Thursday so seniors on the team wouldn’t miss graduation ceremonies tonight--most of the team would be spending some serious time in study hall catching up on Basic Baserunning 4-A.

Crespi (21-6-1) had runners picked off, thrown out, dirtied and damaged. The game ended fittingly for the Celts, who left the bases loaded in their last inning of the season.

El Dorado, which finished second in the Empire League, advances to the semifinal round for the second straight year. Next Tuesday the Golden Hawks (23-4) face the winner of today’s game between Lakewood and Bishop Amat.

“They helped us out with some of that baserunning, no question,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “But we made some good defensive plays out there, too.”

Many of El Dorado’s defensive plays consisted of tagging whichever Crespi player happened to be standing nearby. Twice during rundowns, the Celts had two runners occupying the same base.

After El Dorado scored a run in the first on a double by shortstop Bret Boone--the son of Angels’ catcher Bob Boone--Crespi wasted little time in setting the tone. With two out in the first, Matt Arnold was picked off first by El Dorado starter Pete Janicki.

A Crespi rally in the second also was aborted by aberrant basepath behavior. Even though Crespi scored twice on run-scoring singles by Paul Fell and Ken Franco to take a brief 2-1 lead, two outs were recorded on the bases. Both Pat Murphy and Greg Barton were tagged out at third after getting caught in separate rundowns.

Crespi botched a pick-off play in the third when starter Greg Connolly (3-2) threw wildly to first in an attempt to get El Dorado’s Rene Ayala, who had singled to open the inning. Gill followed with a two-run home run, and three batters later, Doug Yates homered to right with Boone aboard to give El Dorado a 5-2 lead.

Connolly came out forsophomore right-hander Chad Nichols, who kept El Dorado in check the rest of the way.

Crespi, the Del Rey League champion, closed the gap to 5-3 in the third when Arnold singled home Chris Greenamyer. Gullotti then summoned Gill, who also earned a victory in relief in El Dorado’s 13-4 win over Simi Valley on Tuesday. Crespi, which had four hits off Janicki, was blanked for the remainder.

“He was coming in one way or the other,” Gullotti said of the senior left-hander. “It was just a matter of when.”

It proved to be too early for Crespi. Gill was nearly perfect through the sixth as he retired 11 of 13 batters.

In the bottom of the seventh, Crespi loaded the bases with one out when Barton and Franco drew walks after Kevin Thomas was safe on an error. Gill, however, struck out Greenamyer and pinch-hitter Mark Cavarretta. El Dorado catcher Chris Olsen recorded the final out when he dropped the third strike and stepped on home, forcing Thomas.

“That was the knuckle-curve,” Gill said. “I couldn’t get my regular curve over, so I went to the knuckler to take care of the last two guys.”

The rest of the Celts took care of themselves on the basepaths.