ANGELUS LEAGUE BASEBALL ROUNDUP : Mater Dei Gets the Breaks, Stops Bishop Amat to Move Into First Place

Mater Dei High School’s baseball team knew it would take timely hitting, clutch pitching and crucial plays on defense to get by Bishop Amat and take over first place in the Angelus League standings.

Fortunately for the Monarchs, they got all three, plus a critical balk call, and defeated the visiting Lancers, 2-1, Wednesday.

Mater Dei starter Sean Sutton pitched six solid innings, yielding only one run and seven hits. He also struck out five and walked two.

Keith Frankel, filling in at third base for the injured Ryan Anderson, and sophomore catcher Cale Carter supplied the key plays on offense and defense to move the Monarchs (14-6, 6-3) ahead of the Lancers (12-7, 5-4) in the league standings.

Frankel and Carter combined for the deciding run in the sixth inning after helping Sutton get out of a jam in the first. Carter hit a pitch from reliever Eric White to the fence in left-center for a double and scored on Frankel’s single to right for the winning margin.

With one out in the first, Bishop Amat’s J.D. Delgado was cut down at the plate trying to score from third on White’s bouncer to Frankel.

“Frankel made the play in the first inning,” Monarch Coach Bob Ickes said. “It was a perfect throw to the plate and Carter did a great job of blocking the plate to get us out of there. Sutton usually has his problems in the first inning but gets stronger.”

Mater Dei broke open a scoreless tie in the fifth when Bishop Amat pitcher J.D. Romero was called for a balk.That brought home Taylor Ivey, who had singled and advanced on a single by Rick Ellis and a wild pitch.

White tied the score in the sixth when he singled and took third on George Garcia’s single to right and scored on Charles Rodriguez’s fly to left.

In another league game:

Servite 12, Bishop Montgomery 7--Whit Haydon had three hits, scored three times and had three RBIs for visiting Servite (15-5, 4-3).