San Diego Section Baseball : 3-A: Santana, Mount Carmel to Meet in Final

Santana Coach Jim Saska stood in front of the dugout after his team had defeated Grossmont, 10-4, Saturday in a San Diego Section 3-A baseball semifinal and tried to explain why Santana always seems to play better during the playoffs.

“I can’t really put my finger on it,” Saska said. “I guess my kids just get fired up.”

As hard a time as Saska had explaining Santana’s easy victory at the University of San Diego, imagine how tough the defeat was for Grossmont Coach Bill Gray.

After all, his team had beaten Santana twice during the regular season by scores of 22-4 and 14-2. Furthermore, Gray had left-handed ace Lance Dickson (11-2 and 1.40 ERA) on the mound.

However, Dickson allowed five hits and six runs, walked three and had two wild pitches in only two innings.

This time, Gray was left trying to find an explanation.

“I think it came down to the fact that we had beaten them so badly during the regular season,” he said. “They had an awful lot of motivation over in their dugout.”

Whatever the reason, Santana played much better than its third-place standing in the Grossmont League might indicate. As a result, the Sultans (21-7) will have the opportunity to defend their 3-A title Wednesday night at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium against Mount Carmel.

The championship game will be a rematch of last year’s title game, won by Santana, 7-2. In 1984, Santana also beat Mount Carmel for the championship, 6-3.

It will be a very different Santana team that goes after the title this year, however. Saska has only two players back from last year’s team. One thing has remained a constant, though: Santana’s ability to play well when it counts.

Grossmont committed three errors in the first inning as Santana took a 2-0 lead. In the second, Bruce Moutaw doubled in two runs to put Santana ahead, 4-0. Before the hit, Dickson had a string of 32 innings without allowing an earned run.

Jason Cabral, who had doubled in a run in the first, doubled in two more in the second. Santana scored three times in the third to open a 9-0 lead. That was more than enough for Mark Sherman, who went the distance despite allowing a two-run homer to Dave Entrekin in the fifth.

Mount Carmel 4, Fallbrook 3--Mount Carmel (22-6) rode the eight-hit pitching of Tom Cheek to a victory in Saturday’s other semifinal. The Sundevils trailed Fallbrook, 1-0, in the first inning before Ron Kelly came through with a two-out bases-loaded single to left to give Mount Carmel the lead for good.

In the fourth, Mark King drove in a run on an infield single, and another scored on an error as Mount Carmel stretched its lead to 4-1. Cheek wavered a bit, allowing single runs in the fifth and sixth, but was able to close the door in the seventh. He struck out seven and walked none.