Southern Section Baseball Playoffs : Errors Plague Crespi in Loss to Millikan

As Crespi High’s baseball team rolled through the Del Rey League, winning eight in a row behind solid defense and the workhorse pitching of Dan Carroll, Celt fans wondered which would falter first--the Celts’ streak or Carroll’s arm.

Carroll’s teammates tired first. The Celts committed four physical errors and several of the mental variety in losing to Millikan, 4-3, Tuesday in the second round of the Southern Section 5-A Division playoffs at Millikan.

Carroll, the starter in the team’s last 11 games, pitched five innings and gave up four runs, two unearned.

“He didn’t pitch bad,” Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said. “We made some mistakes that beat us. I don’t know if we would have won the game, but we should still be playing.”

Crespi took a 3-0 lead, but Millikan scored two runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings to win.

One run in each inning was unearned.

In the fourth, the Rams scored on three singles, a stolen base and an error.

Millikan scored the game-tying run in the fifth on a drag-bunt single, stolen base and an error. After an intentional walk, the Rams scored the game-winner on a run-scoring single by Robb Beighav.

Crespi (17-11), which won 12 of its last 14 games, had a chance to score more runs, but poor baserunning thwarted two Celt rallies.

In the first inning, with runners on first and third and none out, John Dempsey hit a double-play grounder to second but the runner on third failed to advance.

“I’m still trying to figure out why not,” Muckey said.

Crespi also had a runner picked off third with two out in the fifth.

Covina 3, Rio Mesa 2--The Colts’ Peter DeSimoni pitched a complete game and hit a game-winning home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth that gave Covina a second-round 4-A victory at Covina.

DeSimoni (9-2), who had a 2.76 ERA in 66 innings during the regular season, walked four and struck out eight.

The homer was his seventh.

David Frazier was 2 for 3 for Rio Mesa (20-7-1), the Channel League champion.

Hueneme and Ventura, the Nos. 2 and 3 teams from the Channel League, both won second-round games.

St. Bernard 8, Chaminade 2--The Eagles jumped to a 1-0 lead but couldn’t hold off the top-seeded team in the 2-A in a second-round loss at St. Bernard.

Tim Lavin homered in the fifth for Chaminade (18-6-1).

Cate 10, Queen of Angels 0--Starting pitcher Danny Herold gave up 10 hits and eight runs, three earned, in six innings in the second round of the Small Schools playoffs.

Herold struck out seven and walked two.