Zutler Bunts Taft by Serna, San Fernando

When Taft High cleanup hitter Adam Zutler stepped to the plate in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game, he had the visions of every kid who ever waved a whiffle-ball bat. It was time for the big thrill, the 400-foot slam.

He was wrong. By 350 feet.

Instead, Zutler, all 6-feet-2 and 225 pounds of him, was asked to dink San Fernando to death with a suicide squeeze. It was as well-received as a fastball on the fists.

“I was a little shocked,” he said.

In fact, Zutler was so surprised that he figured the bunt sign had to be a mistake. With a 1-and-0 count, Zutler took a full swing and fouled a pitch down the first-base line. As he walked back to the batter’s box, he asked a couple of teammates in the dugout if he was correctly deciphering the signals of Coach Rich McKeon, who by then was flapping up a storm in the third-base coaching box.

“We’d switched the indicator, so I didn’t know if that’s what he wanted or not,” Zutler said. “Hey, I’m not too quick, so I’m not usually bunting for hits.”

A moment later, San Fernando was twice as wide-eyed as Zutler when the senior catcher bunted down the third-base line for a single to drive in Brett Reisner with the eventual winning run in Taft’s 7-5 Northwest Valley Conference victory Tuesday at San Fernando.

Sure, Zutler was thinking grand slam, but McKeon was just making sure San Fernando right-hander Frank Serna didn’t slam the door on Taft and the lumbering Zutler with a double-play ball.

“Zut hadn’t given us his best at-bats up to that point,” McKeon said. “I just didn’t want to see a strikeout or a ground ball. I knew he could lay it down.”

It was no sure bet, however.

“As far as I know, it was my first bunt in high school,” Zutler said.

It was that kind of game. When asked why he had his cleanup hitter bunting in that situation, McKeon replied: “The bases were loaded?”

Taft scored four runs in the third off Serna (4-1), who allowed 12 hits in suffering only the third loss of his career. Triples in the inning by Jason and Rich Shapiro, no relation, helped stake Taft (8-4, 5-2 in league play) to a 4-1 lead.

San Fernando (7-2-1, 4-2-1) tied the score, 5-5, with a run in the fifth, but by then, the Tigers should have been leading by plenty. In the fourth, San Fernando parlayed two walks, two singles and a double into just two runs. One runner was picked off by Zutler and another over-ran third and was tagged out.

Reisner led off with a single in the seventh and Jason Shapiro followed with a possible double-play grounder to third baseman Richard Avalos, who failed to field it cleanly. One out later, Glenn Nahmias singled to load the bases.

After Zutler bunted home a run, Benji Belfield drove in another with a sacrifice fly to center.