Cal Lutheran Falls in First Round of NAIA District 3 Baseball Playoffs

It seems as though Kendall Kasper of Southern California College should have made more of an impression on Cal Lutheran Coach Rich Hill by now.

Kasper’s grand slam propelled Southern California to a Golden State Athletic Conference victory over Hill’s Kingsmen last month, yet Hill still gets Kendall confused with his older brother, Kevin.

“I can’t tell the difference between them,” Hill said. “They both run and hit the ball.”

Kendall gave Hill another reason to remember him Thursday. He smacked a run-scoring double and a two-run single to lift the Vanguards to a 4-0 victory over Cal Lutheran in the first round of the NAIA District 3 baseball playoffs at Westmont College.

Cal Lutheran (31-17) has to sweep a doubleheader today to avoid elimination. The Kingsmen will play Azusa Pacific, an 8-5 loser to Westmont on Thursday, in a loser’s-bracket game at 9:30 this morning. If they win, the Kingsmen will play again at 3 p.m.

The Vanguards (30-19) collected 10 of their 13 hits in the first four innings off junior right-hander Mike Clark. Southern California jumped ahead, 2-0, in the third on five hits and one Cal Lutheran error. The Vanguards added two runs in the fourth on Kendall Kasper’s two-run single to left that scored Doug Rystrom, who had singled, and Kevin Kasper, who had been hit by a pitch.

After the fourth, Clark (8-3) settled down and gave up only three singles in the last five innings.

“He usually starts out a little shaky, if you can say Clark is shaky, and then gets stronger as the game goes on,” Hill said. “He pitched a great game, but we just did not kick in the door when we had the opportunities.”

Cal Lutheran had repeated opportunities, but the Vanguards turned four double plays to thwart rallies. The Kingsmen got their leadoff batter on base in five of the first seven innings but failed to capitalize.

Southern California pitcher Jim Dedrick’s biggest break came in the seventh when the Kingsmen came away scoreless after loading the bases with none out. With the bases loaded, Darnell Mitchell flied out to right fielder Rystrom, who then relayed the ball to second, catching Devon Schutzler off the base for the double play.

“That play broke our back,” Hill said.

Southern California Coach Doug Adams agreed that the Vanguards hurt Cal Lutheran with their gloves.

“Whenever they started to get a little momentum, we broke it to go our way,” Adams said.

Baserunning mistakes also proved costly for Cal Lutheran. Jeff Brouelette doubled to right-center field in the first for the Kingsmen but was tagged out at third trying to stretch it into a triple.

Dan Weis, who had two hits for Cal Lutheran, doubled to lead off the third and Mitchell followed with a walk. Dedrick fielded Brouelette’s sacrifice bunt and forced Weis at third, however, and proceeded to work out of trouble.