Palos Verdes Tournament : Crespi Loses Consolation Final, 1-0, in an Event That Spanned 49 Days

It’s finally over.

The high school baseball tournament that began not much later than the presidential primaries ended Saturday.

West Torrance, behind senior Marty Kehoe’s one-hitter, beat Crespi, 1-0, in the consolation championship at Valley College. Crespi opened the tournament, which is played over a series of Saturdays, on March 19.

“I think at this point in the season we all feel we’d rather have a short practice and go watch the other games,” Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said before the game.

But when all was said and done, Muckey admitted that the effort was worthwhile, even though the loss broke the Celts’ six-game winning streak.

“We got the stuff we wanted. We got good pitching,” Muckey said. “We just didn’t get the hitting to go along with it.”

The Warriors’ Ted Holloway singled off reliever Chad Nichols with two out in the sixth inning to score Steve Allyn with the game’s only run.

Crespi (13-10) threatened to score in the fifth when the Celts loaded the bases with one out. But Mark Maurize struck out and Nichols flied out to center.

“I started throwing a split-finger fastball recently and it was really working, along with my off-speed stuff,” Kehoe said.

Mark Kurtz, in just his second appearance of the season, started for Crespi and pitched three innings of no-hit ball. He picked off two of the three runners who reached base.

Crespi’s defense got Nichols out of a jam in the fifth when West Torrance loaded the bases with none out. Nichols induced Scott Dobler to tap back to the mound, and Nichols threw home to start a 1-2-3 double play. The inning ended when center fielder Andy McDonald made a diving catch of Denny Hocking’s fly ball.

“That guy pitched a good game,” Muckey said. “He threw a lot of breaking and off-speed stuff and we couldn’t get going.”