Southern Section Baseball Playoffs : 5-A : Defense Gets Save in El Dorado Victory : Fife Catch in 7th, Luke’s Hit in 8th Drop Mater Dei

El Dorado High School’s defense saved the game and its offense won it Friday when the Golden Hawks defeated Mater Dei, 4-2, in eight innings in a Southern Section 5-A baseball playoff game at Mater Dei.

The save came from right-fielder Greg Fife, who made a running catch with the winning run on second to end the seventh and force extra innings. Given another chance, El Dorado scored two runs off Tony Pena, one of the best pitchers in Orange County, to win.

Phil Nevin led off the eighth with a single up the middle. Bruce Petillo singled to right and Matt Luke singled home Nevin from second to put El Dorado ahead, 3-2. Fife added a sacrifice fly one out later.

El Dorado reliever Jay Hassel (4-1) walked Rob Ickes to start the eighth, but retired the next three batters, two on strikeouts. Pena, who relieved starter Scott Corliss in the fourth, got the loss. Pena, who will be attending Arizona State on baseball scholarship in the fall, ends the season with a 12-2 record.

El Dorado led, 2-1, going into the seventh when Lionel Hastings was walked by El Dorado starter Pete Janicki. Two outs later, Janicki walked No. 9 hitter Juan Zarate.

Greg Carl followed with a single to center to drive in Hastings with the tying run. Janicki then was replaced by Hassel, who faced Jason Gill.

Gill drove what looked like the game-winning hit down the right-field line, but Fife raced back and caught the ball.

“The season was maybe a foot away from being over on that ball hit to right field,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “I thought it was going to be a base hit.”

Mater Dei Coach Bob Ickes also thought the game was about to end when Gill hit the ball.

“We thought the ball was over his (Nevin’s) head,” Ickes said. “I thought we were about to pull off another miracle. That was the big play of the game, there’s no question.”

It was the ninth consecutive victory for El Dorado (21-8), which entered the playoffs as the second-place team out of the Empire League. El Dorado plays top-seeded Lakewood (25-3) in a semifinal game Tuesday at Blair Field in Long Beach. Lakewood defeated Fontana, 4-0, Friday.

El Dorado opened a 2-0 lead, scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth.

Dave Moore struck out but reached on wild pitch to start the fourth. He later scored on a single by Luke, who had two hits and two RBIs.

Crosby Spencer singled to open the fifth and moved to second on a wild pick-off throw by Pena. He went to third on a sacrifice bunt by Dave Swearingen and scored on a sacrifice fly by Wayne Hefft. .

Mater Dei scored in the sixth on a double by Carl. He went to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Gill.

Mater Dei, the Angelus League champions and the fourth-seeded team, finishes the season 22-6.