Sepulveda Leaves Studio City Looking for Clues After 9-5 Loss : Legion baseball: Division leader takes advantage of two fifth-inning errors to score four runs and erase one-run deficit.

It was hardly the classic whodunit.

If it were a game of Clue, the story line would go something like this: Somebody killed Zamudio of Studio in Encino.

With a baseball bat.

Sepulveda took advantage of a pair of Studio City errors in the fifth inning to score four runs and come from behind for a 9-5 win in an American Legion District 20 Southern Division baseball game Tuesday at Encino Colt Field.

Sepulveda (15-3) pounded out 13 hits in six innings to cement its hold on the division lead in a game that featured a little bit of everything.

“This isn’t American Legion,” Sepulveda Manager Walt Steele cracked. “It’s the Foreign Legion.”

Right-hander Joel Zamudio relieved in the fifth with Studio City holding a 5-4 lead. His defense quickly left town, however, and Zamudio was left holding the bag.

After a leadoff walk to Joe Eskenazi, Justin Paperny singled up the middle. Center fielder Marco Alvarado allowed the ball to go through the wickets for an error, and the runners moved up a notch. With the infield in, catcher Brian Stewart lashed a pitch down the right-field line to drive in two runs, giving Sepulveda the lead for good.

“I was just trying to hit anything to the right side to get the run in,” said Stewart, a converted third baseman who will be a senior at Montclair Prep this fall. “With runners at second and third, I just wanted to move ‘em over.”

There was movement aplenty seconds later. Jared Sandler followed with a walk, and with runners at first and second, Ethan Parker hit a potential double-play ball to second baseman Bryan McComb, who mishandled it for an error to load the bases.

After a force play at the plate, Brad Fullmer--who had doubled and scored earlier--gave Sepulveda a 7-5 lead with a sacrifice fly to right field. Mike Gursey capped the scoring in the inning with a single to center.

The comeback bailed out Sepulveda starter Chris Chmura, who gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings and was yanked after serving up a two-run homer to Darrell Folk in the fifth that had given Studio City a 5-4 lead.

Left-hander Justin Sampley (2-1) pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the victory, and left-hander Steve Cain pitched a scoreless seventh.

The teams took turns banging around the starting pitchers early, with both teams scoring once in each of the first three innings. Studio City (9-7) seemed poised to put the hurt on Sepulveda in the fifth, but a baserunning blunder by Phil Lugo (three hits) may have helped turn the tide.

With nobody out, Lugo singled to put runners at first and second. Stewart then picked Lugo off first, and Folk followed with his home run to center.

But nobody was perfect in this one. After turning a textbook 6-4-3 double play in the third, the Sepulveda defense bolted off the field in high spirits. Trouble was, there were only two out. After they returned to their positions, four consecutive Studio City batters reached base to push across a run and tie the score, 3-3.

Starting pitchers Chmura and Robert Ballester combined to bend the backstop screen by unloading a combined five wild pitches in 8 1/3 innings. Between the pair, they allowed eight runs, walked nine, hit a batter and struck out four.