El Segundo Suffers Back-to-Backlash in Final : High school baseball: San Marino avenges loss in ’89 Southern Section title game.

It had all the appearances of a typical El Segundo High baseball game:

Eagles take lead. Eagles lose lead. Eagles pull out late-inning victory.

San Marino, though, proved an unwilling participant to the third chapter of the script. The Titans, who erased a 2-0 deficit and chased El Segundo starter Tate Seefried with four runs in the sixth inning, held on for a 5-4 victory in the Southern Section 2-A Division title game Saturday at Anaheim Stadium.

“Most of the time, we come back in the last inning,” said Eagle shortstop Mark Lewis, who was waiting in the on-deck circle when the game’s last out was recorded. “I was thinking we’d do what we usually do.”

Not this day.

El Segundo scored one run and got the potential tying run to first base in the bottom of the seventh, but right-hander Dan Giddings induced Brett Newell to fly out to right field for the third out as San Marino avenged last year’s 7-4 loss to El Segundo in the 2-A final.

“I never had any doubts,” said Giddings, who pitched a five-hitter after taking the loss in last year’s final. “There was no way I was going to let it slip away.”

Instead, it was El Segundo that let an early lead go to waste.

Seefried, making his first pitching start since May 11, was breezing with a two-hitter when San Marino opened the sixth with five consecutive hits to take a 4-2 lead. Two of the hits--one-run doubles by Blair Slattery and sophomore Jon Imlay--bounced near the 386-foot sign in left-center field.

“(Seefried) was just cruising along, then the roof caved in,” El Segundo Coach John Stevenson said.

San Marino Coach Mickey McNamee said it was just a matter of time before his team finally got to Seefried. The heart of the Titans’ lineup--Craig Milias, Slattery, Mark Ukropina and Imlay--combined for seven hits and all five of the team’s runs batted in. Clean-up batter Ukropina, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior, was 3 for 4 with a double and three RBIs.

“We’ve had big innings all season,” McNamee said. “When something gets going, we’ve got the type of team that builds on it. The right people came up at the right time.”

The coach said the Titans had trouble hitting early in the game because they were chasing high pitches.

“Seefried wasn’t getting us out,” he said. “We were getting ourselves out.”

Although he faltered on the mound, Seefried had another big day at the plate. He doubled to left-center field with two outs and scored on Garret Quaintance’s single in the first inning, and he tripled to center and scored on a wild pitch in the sixth to pull El Segundo within 4-3.

San Marino regained a two-run lead in the seventh, when Milias, Slattery and Ukropina strung together three singles off right-hander Rob Croxall. The senior relieved Seefried in the sixth and got three consecutive outs to keep the Eagles from suffering further damage.

The chance for an El Segundo comeback looked promising when Kenny Talanoa opened the seventh by blooping an 0-2 pitch into right field for a single.

“As long as you’re breathing, you have a chance,” Stevenson said. “We certainly were in position (to come back).”

However, the Eagles’ position went from good to bad on the next at-bat. Sophomore Jeff Poor hit a hard fly ball that bounced off left fielder John DeSpirito’s glove for an error. Talanoa hesitated momentarily between first and second before he was waved to third by assistant coach Greg McMullin. A perfect relay throw from shortstop Nick Angelos to third baseman Slattery got Talanoa, who made a head-first slide.

Instead of runners on first and second and no outs, El Segundo had one out and Poor on second.

“I was heading back to the bag because I thought (DeSpirito) caught it,” Talanoa said. “I looked at the third-base coach (McMullin), and he was waving me around. I thought I was safe. (Slattery) trapped the ball. It was just one of those games where we didn’t get any breaks.”

Said McMullin: “I thought (Slattery) trapped it. But the throw was there. It took a good throw to get him. The umpire might have been blocked out on it.”

After Eric Stevenson popped up for the second out, the game appeared over when pinch hitter Chris Feeny struck out swinging. But the catcher, Imlay, dropped the ball and his throw to first hit Feeny in the back, allowing Poor to score.

But the Eagles’ stroke of good luck ended quickly as Newell, the lead-off batter, flew out on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.

It was a frustrating loss for El Segundo. The Eagles, who returned 10 of 16 varsity players from 1989 and added a talented transfer in Seefried, had been favored to repeat as 2-A champion since the season started. They finished 27-4.

“We’re still far better than they are, that’s for damn sure,” Quaintance said. The senior, El Segundo’s regular catcher, played left field for the second consecutive game because of a thumb injury.

The switch might have hurt the Eagles. Quaintance misplayed a ball for a double in the second inning and lost another fly in the sixth when he crashed hard into the padded wall.

“Playing here for the first time, it was hard to judge,” he said. “The ball was carrying a lot because the air was so hot. I just tried to do my best.”

Said Coach Stevenson: “It’s tough to become really skilled at a position when you haven’t been playing there.”

San Marino, which has qualified for the playoffs 18 of the past 20 years under McNamee, finished the season 23-2-1 with a 16-game winning streak.

El Segundo, playing in its 10th CIF final under Stevenson, will be remembered as one of the school’s best teams not to win a Southern Section title. The Eagles set section records for most runs scored (362) and hits (375) in a season.

“You can’t judge teams and players just on the ultimate achievement,” Stevenson said. “We had a very good team in 1970 that didn’t win it. I think six players were eventually drafted. A lot of those kids came back to win it in ’71.

“This team did it in reverse.”