Mater Dei Walks to Victory

Mater Dei is used to life at the top. Capistrano Valley is finding out how tough it can be.

The Monarchs moved ahead of the Cougars in the county poll, becoming the top-ranked baseball team this week. And Mater Dei strengthened its grip on that position Wednesday by edging second-ranked Capistrano Valley, 4-3, at Mater Dei.

Mike Kolbach’s bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth broke a 3-3 tie. The Monarchs (8-1, 3-0) are the only undefeated team in the South Coast League.

Trailing, 1-0, in the sixth, the Cougars (6-3, 1-2), because of two errors and a walk, loaded the bases against Monarch starter Mike Hessman. They scored three times on singles by Andy Tuzzolino and Bryan Canfield, and a sacrifice fly by Matt Pope. But Capistrano Valley also had a runner thrown out at the plate, a play that loomed large in the bottom of the inning.

Cougar starter Rik Currier ran into immediate trouble by walking the Monarchs’ Ryan Blackmun in the sixth. Brett Kay reached on an error, and both runners moved up on Rod Fraser’s sacrifice bunt.

Ryan Leinart slapped a grounder to third; Dan Davis’ throw home beat pinch-runner Jason Lynn, but Pope did not block the plate, and his tag on Lynn was ruled late. The next hitter, Nick Harlambakis, punched another fielder’s choice grounder to short. But, with a moment’s indecision, John DiCorpo threw late to second as a run scored.

Currier (2-2) struck out Pat Manning but walked Tony Micheletti to load the bases. He then walked Kolbach to force in the eventual winning run.

Three runs--without the benefit of a hit.

“Definitely one of the hardest losses I’ve had in some time,” Cougar Coach Bob Zamora said. “You could point out the play at the plate; you could point out the pitch we thought was a strike on Kolbach that took the count to 3-0 instead of 2-1. But you can’t dwell on that. There were plays we could have made that we didn’t. We have to look in our own backyard.”

Mater Dei Coach Bob Ickes, whose team lost to Capistrano Valley in tournament play earlier this season, expects many more tense afternoons as the season continues.

“I wouldn’t say we have a leg up on the rest of the league,” Ickes said. “It’s very competitive. Dana Hills hasn’t won a [league] game and they played us very hard. Trabuco [Hills] is good, San Clemente is good. And these guys. This is probably the second-toughest league after Sunset.”