4 Errors Lead to Conejo Loss in State Tournament : American Legion baseball: Opportunistic Escondido records 6-2 win in first-round game.

As soon as Brian Sturges’ two-run homer cleared the left-field fence in the fourth inning Saturday, the public-address announcer shifted into high gear.

The ball in tatters, Sturges won some ‘taters for his tater.

“Brian Sturges, you’ve just won a two-liter bottle of soda pop and, just in time for Thanksgiving, a case of sweet potatoes!”

More like small potatoes for Sturges and his Conejo teammates. The home run was Conejo’s only offense in a 6-2 loss to Escondido in the first round of the American Legion state playoffs.

Conejo, the District 16 and Area 6 champion, will face El Segundo in an elimination game today at 9 a.m.

Wither Conejo? Studs or spuds, mashers or small fries? The call was not a particularly difficult one to make.

“Quite a few of our guys remarked about how easy it was to hit the ball out of here,” Conejo Coach Craig Sturges said. “And look at how many fly balls we had.”

Fly outs, ground outs, strikeouts . . . the gamut. Conejo (38-5) managed just five hits and one earned run off Escondido right-hander Damon Vinje, who struck out two, walked two and went the distance. It was all or nothing for Conejo’s batters, who had a not-so-grand total of three doubles, a bunt single and Sturges’ home run.

Playing at 9 a.m. in the first game of the tournament, Conejo rolled out of bed at 6. A lack of Zs, evidently, can lead to plenty of E’s and Ks.

“I told them they could sleep all afternoon and wait and see who was in the winners’ bracket,” said Craig Sturges, whose team fell into the elimination bracket instead.

Conejo did not wait until afternoon to doze.

With one out and a runner at first in the second inning, shortstop Bryan Corey mishandled a double-play grounder and Brian Sandland capitalized by lining a two-run double to the fence in left-center field.

Sturges tied the score, 2-2, with his fifth homer of the season, but the deadlock did not last long.

Conejo starter Jeff Naster (10-1) surrendered a leadoff double to Ben Duncan in the bottom of the fourth, and, as he threw ball four to the next batter, Vinje, Duncan swiped third. Vinje (8-0) then broke for second and was thrown out, but Duncan beat the relay home to give Escondido a 3-2 lead.

Escondido (22-4), the runner-up in the state tournament last summer, piled it on in the fifth. Curtis Marsh opened with a single, and, with one out, stole second. Marsh scored on a single to center by Brian Moss, who took second when center fielder Jim Chergey’s throw to the plate landed halfway up the backstop screen.

Brian Kooiman, the most valuable player of last year’s tournament, followed with another single to center. Moss stopped at third but bolted home when Chergey bobbled the ball for another error, and Escondido led, 5-2.

Conejo committed four errors, including one in the sixth inning by sure-handed second baseman Ryan Kritscher, who had not made an error in 41 consecutive Legion games.

Conejo twice blew scoring opportunities in the middle innings.

In the fifth, Brent Christenson flied deep to left with runners at first and second. The baserunners tagged up and tried to advance, but Kritscher was thrown out at second for the third out.

With runners at the corners in the sixth, Naster hit a drive that knocked the glove from the left hand of Vinje, who recovered in time to make the throw to first for the out.

“I think it hit off the side (of the glove),” said Vinje, Escondido’s No. 2 pitcher. “I was just trying to knock it down.”

Vinje (rhymes with stingy) did more than that. He put Conejo, one of the pre-tournament favorites, one loss from elimination.