COLLEGE BASEBALL : NCAA DIVISION III REGIONALS : Cal Lutheran Moves Within 1 Win of Title After Split

Say this about the baseball teams at UC San Diego and Cal Lutheran: No matter who advances from the NCAA Division III West regional best-of-five series this weekend, both squads can take pride in having produced one of the most exciting series in either school’s history.

After Cal Lutheran won the series opener, 5-4, on 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 into extra innings.

San Diego won the first game Saturday, 2-1 in 10 innings; Cal Lutheran then won, 8-7, with the winning run scoring in 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 San Diego. The Tritons are 28-8-1, and three of their losses have been to Cal Lutheran.

Just as Cal Lutheran had defeated San Diego in 10 innings on Friday, UCSD beat the Kingsmen in the first game Saturday on a 10th-inning hit.

San Diego’s Doran Yount, pinch-hitting for Steve Wrenn, lofted 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 10th.

The loss was particularly painful for Cal Lutheran in that starter Pat Norville gave up only one hit and no earned runs in the first nine innings and because the Kingsmen 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 fifth. At that juncture, David Blum lined a triple to deep center field, but the Tritons failed to score.

As was the case Friday, Cal Lutheran did not score until there were two out in one of the late innings. Saturday, it was the eighth. Bob Farber singled to left with two out, then went to second on a passed ball and to third on an infield single by Dan Smith. Jim Fifer, pinch-hitting for Pete Martin, singled to right and Farber scored to make it 1-0.

San Diego tied it in the ninth. With one out, Wrenn was hit by a pitch, Ernie Isola walked, and David Rex flied to right. Marcos Magdaleno then hit a one-hopper just to the right of shortstop Smith, but the ball skipped by him, and Wrenn scored.

For Smith, it was only his sixth error in 40 games. Smith, however, got redemption in the second game. His ground ball with the bases loaded in the ninth enabled pinch-runner Pete Martin to score.