Strong Battery Propels Crespi to Easy Victory

The Bishop Montgomery High baseball team was lucky that Jeff Suppan had only average “stuff” Wednesday.

Otherwise, the Knights might not have gotten any hits.

As it was, the Crespi right-hander held Bishop Montgomery to four hits and pitched the visiting Celts to a 10-2 victory in a Mission League opener.

Suppan and catcher Casey Snow provided the offense as well. Suppan was three for four with a run batted in and Snow was two for three with a double, a home run, three RBIs and four runs.

But the battery’s primary job was shutting down the Knights, which it did. The consensus of Suppan, Snow and Coach Scott Muckey, however, was that Suppan was not as dominant as he could have been.

“He really had to pitch well today because he didn’t have his best fastball,” Muckey said.

Suppan (2-1), who has signed to pitch at UCLA next season, struck out eight and walked none. Two of the hits were infield singles, and he allowed one earned run. “He was throwing good today,” Snow said. “He was throwing his curve well in the late innings.”

He easily could have had a shutout.

With two strikes on leadoff hitter Camilo Howe in the first inning, Suppan got Howe to swing at a curve that broke too sharply for Snow to handle. Snow then overthrew first base, sending Howe to second. He scored after two ground balls.

In the second, Chike Agbai led off with an infield single and stole second. One out later, Fabian Fierro singled up the middle, scoring Agbai.

Suppan did not come close to allowing a run after that. He allowed only three baserunners the rest of the game. One reached on an error, and another was caught stealing soon after his hit.

While Suppan was settling in on the mound, he and his teammates were settling in at the plate. Crespi led, 3-2, after two innings, but the Celts (5-1) scored in each of the remaining five innings. The biggest shot was Snow’s two-out, two-run home run in the fourth, giving Crespi a 6-2 lead.

Snow pulled a fastball, which is no surprise, because fastballs were about all Fierro, the Knight starter, threw.

“That was all I saw,” Snow said.

Actually Fierro’s problem was not too many fastballs, but too many fast balls.

He walked seven Crespi batters and hit two more in 4 1/3 innings. Five of those runners scored.

Suppan, perhaps sympathetic toward a fellow pitcher, would not criticize his opponent’s control.

“(Fierro) did a good job pitching,” he said, “except for a few bad ones.”