UCSD, Cal Lutheran Split One-Run Games : Baseball: Kingsmen lead best-of-five series, 2-1. Each game has been decided in final at-bat.

Say this about the baseball teams at UC San Diego and Cal Lutheran. Whichever one advances from the NCAA Division III West Regional best-of-five series this weekend at UCSD, both can take pride in having produced one of the most exciting series in either school’s history.

After Cal Lutheran won the series opener Friday, the Kingsmen and Tritons split a doubleheader Saturday. All three games have been decided in the home team’s final at-bat, and two have gone extra innings.

UCSD won the first game Saturday, 2-1 in 10 innings; and Cal Lutheran then won, 8-7, with the winning run coming in the bottom of the ninth.

Of the series, Cal Lutheran Coach Rich Hill might have summarized things best: “Already in three games, there are a lot of heroes and a lot of goats.”

Game 4 will begin today at noon, followed by Game 5, if necessary.

With the victory in Game 3, top-ranked Cal Lutheran is 38-4, and two of its losses have come against UCSD. The Tritons are 28-8-1, and three of their losses have been to Cal Lutheran.

Though both games were tight Saturday, the first game was the highlight of the two.

Just as Cal Lutheran had defeated UCSD, 5-4 in 10 innings on Friday, UCSD beat the Kingsmen in the first game Saturday on a clutch hit with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning.

UCSD’s Doran Yount, pinch-hitting for Steve Wrenn, did the honors this time, lofting a bases-loaded single in front of left fielder Jay Lucas off reliever Louis Birdt (1-1).

On Friday, Cal Lutheran’s Jason Wilcox drove in the winning run with a one-out single in the bottom of the 10th.

In all three games in the series, a pinch-runner has scored the winning run. In UCSD’s victory, it was Eric Quandt, who has only 11 at-bats this season but has scored 23 times.

The loss was particularly painful for Cal Lutheran, given that starter Pat Norville allowed only one hit and no earned runs in the first nine innings, and Cal Lutheran came within one pitch of finishing off the Tritons in nine innings.

Thanks to four outstanding plays in the field, Norville had a no-hitter until one out in the bottom of the fifth. That’s when right-handed hitting David Blum, who hit an opposite-field home run Friday, lined a triple to deep center field. The Tritons, however, failed to score.

Like Friday, Cal Lutheran did not score until there were two outs in one of the late innings. Saturday, it was the eighth. Bob Farber singled to left with two outs, then went to second on a passed ball and to third on an infield single to Dan Smith.

Jim Fifer, pinch-hitting for Pete Martin, who had struck out three times in three at-bats, rolled a single between the first and second basemen, and Farber trotted home to make it 1-0.

UCSD tied it in the bottom of the ninth, but not after receiving a two-out gift from one of the best fielders in Division III.

With one out, Wrenn was hit by a pitch, Ernie Isola walked, and David Rex flied to right.

Marcos Magdaleno’s then hit a one-hopper just to the right of shortstop Smith, but the ball skipped by him, and Wrenn came across with the tying run.

For Smith, it was only his sixth error in 40 games, a remarkable number for a college shortstop.

Smith, however, got redemption in Saturday’s second game. His ground ball with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth enabled pinch-runner Pete Martin to score from third.

Said Smith of the series: “It’s mentally draining. That’s for sure.”

The second game, while suspenseful, was more a situation of two good offensive teams taking advantage of the other team’s thin middle relief pitching.

For example, UCSD freshman Todd Horvath faced eight batters Saturday, one more than he had seen all season.