Crespi Unloads On Montclair Prep, 13-6

Crespi High baseball Coach Scott Muckey paused for a moment when asked to sum up his team’s victory over Montclair Prep on Friday at Valley College.

“Pitchers’ duel,” he joked of the 13-6 final score.

The result wasn’t much of a surprise. Montclair Prep (16-4-1) is a good offensive team with questionable pitching, its coach, Walt Steele, has admitted.

Crespi (19-2), ranked second in the Times’ area poll, is deep in pitching, but the Celts weren’t likely to use their best arms in a nonleague game sandwiched between Mission League contests.

Sam Clemons, Crespi’s No. 4 starter, survived a nearly disastrous third inning and earned the victory, giving up two earned runs in five innings.

With Crespi leading, 3-0, Clemons (2-0) gave up four runs in the third on three hits and two walks. He also balked a run home.

“I was real happy with the way he came back after he broke down in the third,” Muckey said. “He hasn’t gotten to pitch a lot lately and something like that can tear you up.”

Clemons gave up only one more hit in the next two innings, after his teammates had buried the Mounties with eight runs in the third.

Montclair Prep starter Chris Ferebee (1-2), then reliever Jeff Shapiro, who faced four hitters and did not record an out, were both chased in the third.

Jared Sandler, who finished the game, recorded the final two outs of that inning, which ended with Crespi holding an 11-4 lead.

“We’ve been scoring a lot of runs lately,” Steele said, “and when we get average pitching, we usually can win. But they rolled a big inning on us.”

Celt catcher Casey Snow led a 14-hit attack with three hits. Javier Avila, Jeff Suppan and Brad Wright each had two hits for the Celts, who have won nine in a row and are alone atop the Mission League with a 9-0 record.

Montclair Prep sophomore center fielder Darrell Dent was three for four and scored two runs.

The potential matchup between Brad Fullmer and Suppan, perhaps the Valley’s best hitter and best pitcher, did not materialize because Suppan, who threw a 96-pitch no-hitter on Wednesday, played first base.

Fullmer, who leads area players in home runs and runs batted in, was one for four with a run and an RBI.