Chaminade Lays Down a Surprise

There were four home runs in Chaminade High’s Southern Section baseball quarterfinal against Redondo on Friday, but a bunt single turned out to be the biggest hit.

Chaminade’s Chris Martinez surprised everyone when he pushed a two-out, bases-loaded bunt between the pitcher’s mound and the third-base line and dove at first to beat out a single.

Pinch-runner Dennis Mikulich scored on the play, which capped a six-run sixth inning for Chaminade and lifted the host Eagles to a 7-6, come-from-behind Division III victory.

Chaminade (27-2) will face Anaheim Canyon in the semifinals Tuesday at a site to be determined.

“I went for it,” Martinez said. “I saw the third baseman was back and it was more instinct than anything. I knew I had it because the pitch looked fat coming in. I’ve never seen a bigger beach ball than that.”

Entering the sixth, the Eagles’ chances looked grim. They trailed, 6-1, and had managed only two hits against Redondo right-hander Jared Moon, a USC-bound senior whose fastball has been clocked in the 90s.

But Chaminade, a team that prides itself on battling to the end, did just that. Seven consecutive batters reached base with one out in the sixth, highlighted by Chris Gray’s two-run double that chased Moon. With two out and the bases loaded, Mike Whitaker was hit by a pitch to drive in the tying run. Two pitches later, Martinez dropped the bomb.

“Hey, win or no win the guys didn’t give up and that’s what I’m most proud of,” Chaminade Coach Scott Drootin said. “I was trying to think of things to say to them after the game, but then I looked in their eyes and thought that I might not really need to think of things.”

Martinez said he wasn’t thinking bunt until Drootin reminded him of a deal Drootin made at the beginning of the season.

“It’s a long-standing little bet,” Martinez said. “Drootin told us that the first person to put a bunt down with two outs and a runner at third and beat it out gets a dinner. So Drootin walks up to me before I went up and says, ‘Think about dinner.’ ”

Chaminade batters appeared intimidated by Moon at the outset, but when Ryan Hamill--Chaminade’s third batter--sent a tape-measure home run over the left-field fence in the first inning, it appeared to loosen the team. It was Hamill’s 16th home run of the season.

“Everyone came in saying, ‘Oh, this guy throws 90 and he’s going to USC, he must be as good as [Kennedy pitcher Jon] Garland,’ ” Hamill said. “But [the home run] showed that he was hittable.”

But it wasn’t until the sixth that anyone else hit Moon’s pitches.

hile Chaminade’s bats struggled, so did Gray on the mound. The righthander with the submarine-style deliver had trouble keeping his pitches down and gave up three home runs and three doubles before Bruce Greenwood relieved him in the fifth with no outs and three runs in.

Greenwood (10-1) allowed three hits and struck out three in three scoreless innings to earn his second victory of the week.

“That’s all right,” Gray said. “I’ll be back Tuesday and that’s what it’s all about.”