Baseball : Servite Unravels in Ninth, Loses to St. Paul, 8-5

Mike McNary, Servite High School baseball coach, probably would like to forget Saturday’s Angelus League game against St. Paul and concentrate on next week’s showdown series with league-leading Bishop Amat.

Servite committed three errors in the top of the ninth inning as St. Paul rallied for three runs to defeat the Friars, 8-5, at Servite.

“Errors were the ballgame,” McNary said. “With the loss today, it makes it imperative for us to sweep Bishop Amat next week and stay on top in the league race.”

The defeat drops Servite, the fifth-ranked team in the Orange County Sportswriters’ Assn. poll, to 12-5 overall and 5-2 in league play. St. Paul is 8-6-1 and 3-4.

The Friars haven’t had much trouble scoring runs this season. Servite has outscored its opponents, 172-55, but against St. Paul, the Friars couldn’t capitalize in crucial situations.

Servite left nine runners on base, including two each in the fifth, sixth and ninth innings. The Friars brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth, but St. Paul reliever Steve Duda (4-3), who came on in place of Victor Gonzalez in the sixth, shut down Servite.

Duda, a junior right-hander, gave up no runs and only two hits in three innings. After issuing walks to Greg Coleman and Tom Szymanski to start the ninth. Duda got Mike Robertson to fly out, Brian Criss to foul out and Mike Giuseffi to end the game on a come-backer to the mound.

“Steve is our No. 1 guy,” St. Paul Coach Leo Gutierrez said. “He showed a lot of character today coming into a tough situation, but he pitched as well as we could have hoped for.”

Trailing, 1-0, the Swordsmen scored five times in the third inning off Servite starter Andy Croghan (5-2). Emmitt Amezquita had a two-run double and catcher Marty Tourville a three-run home run.

Servite came back in its half of the third, scoring three runs to cut the lead to 5-4. The Friars scored the tying run in the sixth when Jim Berry’s sacrifice fly to center scored Craig Barkley from third. Barkley earlier had tripled off Gonzalez.

In the ninth, Servite became its own worst enemy. With one out, John Savedra’s grounder got past Friar second basemen Coleman for an error and Mike Kyckelhahn scored second for the go-ahead run. With two out and runners on second and third, Amezquita hit a chopper to Szymanski at short, but first basemen Giuseffi couldn’t handle the throw and pinch-runner Robert Stalder and Miguel Medina came around to score for a commanding 8-5 lead.

“We hit the ball hard all day,” McNary said. “Duda was the key as he really shut down our big bats.”

In an Empire League game:

Esperanza 10 Cypress 0--Host Esperanza (11-5, 5-2) jumped ahead early, scoring five runs in the second inning. Todd Gudat knocked in two runs with a bases-loaded single and Dan Mondragon followed with a two-RBI double. Jimmy Short hit a 450-foot solo home run in the third, and Kevin Webb had a two-run home run in the sixth. Pitcher Jason Moler (4-2) got the win for Esperanza. Cypress falls to 0-7 in league.