El Segundo Suffers Back-to Backlash in Final : Eagles: Sixth inning proved to be downfall, as Titans scored four runs.

Tate Seefried was finally where he always dreamed he would be--sort of.

Sitting in front of his locker at Anaheim Stadium Saturday, Seefried took a deep breath of major league atmosphere.

“Hopefully, someday I’ll get to sit in one of these every night,” Seefried said.

He smiled, but it was a little forced. Seefried and his El Segundo High teammates had just lost the Southern Section 2-A Division championship to San Marino, 5-4.

And it had been Seefried, a standout transfer from Spokane, Wash., who let a 2-0 El Segundo lead slip away in a disastrous sixth inning.

Through five innings, Seefried allowed only two hits--one of them a fly ball that left fielder Garret Quaintance misjudged in the sun.

But San Marino leadoff man Alfonso Montoya opened the sixth with a sharp single to center. Craig Milias followed with another single and Blair Slattery spoiled Seefried’s shutout with an RBI double that short-hopped the left-field wall at the 386-foot sign.

That brought El Segundo Coach John Stevenson to the mound for a talk.

“I told him to challenge them to hit his best stuff,” Stevenson said. “We were still ahead, 2-1, and I was hoping for a strikeout or a popup.”

Seefried got neither. Mark Ukropina, San Marino’s leading batter at .475, drove a single into center, scoring two and giving San Marino the lead for good.

“We didn’t handle the middle of their lineup very well,” Stevenson said. “They bunched their hits together, and that usually translates into runs.”

Mark Lewis watched the damage unfold from shortstop. When Seefried has pitched in the past, the sure-handed Lewis has gotten more than his share of ground balls.

“I was just hoping we could get some outs--at least one, anything to slow them down a little bit,” Lewis said.

Rob Croxall, who pitched a three-hitter in El Segundo’s 7-1 victory over St. Anthony Tuesday, finished up for Seefried with two innings of relief, allowing one run.

Croxall didn’t play in the championship game last year when El Segundo beat San Marino, 7-4, at Dodger Stadium.

“I was hoping to come in in a save situation,” Croxall said. “Not a situation where the guy just got rocked.”

It wasn’t the first time this year that Seefried had trouble in the sixth. In the Camino Real League finale against St. Bernard, Seefried had a three-hit shutout before giving up six hits and five runs in the sixth, but El Segundo won the game.

By the sixth, Seefried (7-2) said he had lost command of his slider, and his fastball was sailing up around the batters’ eyes.

“The second time around, they were ready for my fastball,” he said. “It doesn’t help that I couldn’t get one of my main pitches over, and I had to go with just one.”

Seefried might never have to worry about pitching again.

A line drive-hitting first baseman, Seefried tied for the Southern Section lead in home runs with 13, and led the Eagles in batting at .473 with 50 runs batted in.

Saturday, he doubled off the left-field wall, tripled over Montoya’s head in center and scored twice.

He is expected to be a high pick in the major league’s amateur draft. Seefried also has scholarship offers from Cal State Long Beach, Fresno State, Washington State and Pepperdine.

After the loss, he was trying hard to look forward.

“We’ll have to wait until after Monday about the future,” Seefried said. “The money doesn’t really matter. I just want to play baseball every day.”