Mistakes Foil Cal Lutheran in First Round : College baseball: Hit-and-run play backfires, and Kingsmen’s rally falls short in 7-6 loss to Ithaca in first round of Division III World Series.

Rich Hill isn’t a coach who toils with a passive approach toward the game of baseball.

Hill prefers to play the role of the aggressor, and it has paid off in the form of 75 victories the past two seasons and a career winning percentage of .715 in seven seasons as coach at Cal Lutheran.

But Hill’s strategy backfired Friday, and the top-seeded Kingsmen added a handful of defensive mistakes that left them with a 7-6 setback to second-seeded Ithaca College (N.Y.) in the first round of the NCAA Division III World Series at Nichols Field.

Cal Lutheran blew a four-run lead and faced a 7-5 deficit in the eighth inning, when Gabe Diaz and Eric Johnson (two for four) led off with consecutive singles. Joe Cascione went to the plate and Hill ordered a risky hit-and-run play that failed when Cascione swung and missed, and Diaz was thrown out at third.

The call proved costly when Cascione followed with a double that scored Johnson, pulling Cal Lutheran to within 7-6. Cascione was left standing at second when Rawley Jacobson grounded out to third and Chris Fick, whose three-run home run gave Cal Lutheran a 5-1 lead in the fourth, flied out to left field.

“In that situation, when we’re down two and we’re the visiting team, we’re not playing for the tie,” Hill said. “We want to be the aggressor. But (Cascione) had a tough pitch to hit.”

The play sealed Cal Lutheran’s fate, which shifted as quick as a Midwest storm front.

The Kingsmen (32-8 overall), ranked No. 1, broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Jacobson (two for four). Fick followed with the three-run shot, his team-leading ninth homer.

Cal Lutheran used four outstanding defensive plays to maintain its four-run lead.

Shortstop Diaz and second baseman Cascione turned a double play that ended an Ithaca rally in the third, and Diaz made a backhanded stop that led to another double play in the fourth. Center fielder Carlos Cardenas threw out an Ithaca runner at home in the second and, while fielding a single during an Ithaca rally in the fifth, he fired another strike to home that kept Ithaca’s runner at third. The runner was stranded there.

Ironically, the Kingsmen’s defense led to their demise in the seventh. Cal Lutheran, which finished with four errors, committed two errors in the seventh that led to four unearned runs. The costliest miscue occurred when Cal Lutheran led, 5-4, and the bases were loaded with two out. Chad Kolb singled to right, and the ball scooted past right fielder Pete Martin.

When Martin finally retrieved the ball, three runs had scored and Ithaca (32-8) had a 7-5 lead.

“We had an opportunity to shut the door on them and we didn’t do it,” Cascione said. “We let it slip away.”

Cascione was three for four for Cal Lutheran, which finished with 11 hits. Sam Arroyo (0-3), who allowed three runs and three hits in one inning of relief, took the loss. Three Kingsmen pitchers allowed 12 hits and they walked five.

“If you’re going to lose in a tournament, I think it’s better to lose your first,” Hill said. “Then you can establish momentum through the rest of it.”

That mind-set will be challenged today at 10:30 a.m. PDT when Cal Lutheran plays Eastern Connecticut State (27-10-2) in an elimination game.