Crespi Misses Chance for Title With 13-13 Tie

Things tend to be wild and wacky when Crespi and Notre Dame highs meet in athletic contests.

But Friday’s 3-hour 50-minute baseball game at Valley College stretched the limits of those expectations. The Mission League finale ended in a 13-13 tie, called because of darkness after nine innings.

It was certainly wild.

And it left Crespi most definitely out of whack.

With St. Paul defeating Alemany, 5-1, on Friday, the tie cost Crespi (16-8-1, 9-2-1 in league play) a share of the league championship. St Paul’s win gave the Swordsmen the title at 10-2.

Crespi Coach Scott Muckey was in no mood to claim his team deserved a share of the title. An uncharacteristic eight errors by his usually fundamentally sound club left a sour taste in his mouth--so much so that he could barely spit out the proper words to describe what had transpired.

“We played as bad as you can play,” Muckey said. “In a championship game, for this to happen. . . . I mean, I’m proud of the season we had, but as far as the game, we were terrible.”

Not as terrible as Muckey would think. Things appeared so bad early for Crespi that a tie was the last thing any among the crowd of about 300 expected.

Crespi starter Jeff Suppan got into trouble early, and after Notre Dame (14-8-1, 5-6-1) scored five runs in the second inning, the Celts trailed, 6-0. Two more Notre Dame runs scored in the third on an error and a wild pitch. Notre Dame led, 8-1, and the game appeared all but over.

The lead grew to 10-3 entering the bottom of the fifth. Safe lead? Remember, this is Crespi vs. Notre Dame.

Notre Dame starter Cary Wichmann tired in the fifth and after Mike Peters and Bill Canalez hit run-scoring singles, Crespi had closed the gap to 10-5 and loaded the bases. Notre Dame Coach Bob Mandeville went to senior Eric Vellozzi in relief.

Seven consecutive Crespi batters then reached base--the highlights coming when Kyle Carden and Victor Seper roped two-run doubles into right field--and when it was over, Crespi had rolled a 10 to take a 13-10 lead.

But two Crespi errors in the sixth helped make the score 13-12. And in the seventh, with a Mission League title just one out away, Seper committed a throwing error from third base on Dave Supple’s routine grounder, scoring Louie Tapia from third and sending the game into extra innings.

From there, Mother Nature decided the rivals best go home tied.

“I kinda wish it had been decided one way or the other,” said Mandeville, whose team finished in fourth place and will miss the playoffs. “We were so loose, and they were playing for so much, I thought something crazy might happen.”

It did. Remember, it’s Crespi vs. Notre Dame.