Cal Lutheran’s Clark Beats Heat, Master’s

There were two on, two out and two things on Rich Hill’s mind as the Cal Lutheran baseball coach held a silent cerebral debate during the eighth inning of Thursday’s nonconference home game against the Master’s College.

Mike Clark, who Hill considers his top starting pitcher, obviously was wearing down after more than two hours of battling both Master’s batters and the sweltering mid-afternoon heat.

After going six innings without walking a batter, Clark had just issued his second pass in six batters and Cal Lutheran’s one-run lead was tenuous at best.

Common sense told Hill that it might be a good time for a change. But loyalty to his junior right-hander made him patient, and it paid off as the Kingsmen and Clark held on to win, 3-2, at Cal Lutheran.

With his top reliever, Chris Matkin, already loose in the bullpen, Hill made a trip to the mound, but only to give his starter a pep talk.

“I said, ‘Mike, this is your game.’ And just the kind of person he is, that kind of stuff really pumps him up,” Hill said. “He loves to be in a dogfight. He loves the game to be on the line.”

It was. And even more so after Hill confidently strode off the mound and back into the dugout. Clark--perhaps deciding to thoroughly enjoy his predicament--walked Russ Henzie, the next batter, to load the bases.

That brought up Jeff Preston, who, Hill said later, was going to be Clark’s last batter of the inning no matter what happened. “If he walked or got a hit,” Hill said, “Mike was gone.”

Instead, Preston did what he had done in his three previous at-bats. He hit a fly ball for an out. It was Master’s last chance.

Clark retired the side in order in the ninth, striking out Scott Crowder for the final out. Four of the seven hits Clark allowed came in the first four innings.

He gave up a run-scoring double to Jeff Cole in the first inning and a solo home run to Tony Jaime in the second.

A changeup that Jaime pulled over the right-field fence was one of few mistakes Clark made.

“I’d been starting everyone with fastballs so I decided to do something different,” Clark said of his pitch to the Master’s catcher. “I guess that wasn’t such a good idea.”

Cal Lutheran (20-11) scored all of its runs in the fourth inning when the Kingsmen accounted for half of their eight hits.

A run-scoring double by Anthony Espitia was the only hard-hit ball of the inning. It scored Daren Cornell, who had led off with a bunt single.

Devon Schutzler advanced Espitia to third by blooping a single to left field. Schutzler was sacrificed to second and both runners scored on a double by Dan Weis that was placed much better than it was hit.

Weis fought off a fastball on the hands and pushed it over the infield between short and third, where it landed just in time to skip sideways past Preston, Master’s left fielder.

Weis probably would have been hard-pressed to lob the ball any better between the fielders. The hit made a loser out of John March, who pitched well enough to win only to see his record fall to 0-5.

March allowed only three baserunners after the fourth inning. He struck out four and walked three. Master’s dropped to 12-21-1.