No Mercy Is Shown for Baseball Playoffs

For anyone wondering, yes, the 10-run rule is in effect for the Southern Section baseball playoffs.

Highland High found out the hard way in the first round Friday, losing to Crespi, 10-0.

Crespi exploded for seven runs in the fifth inning and when Anthony Trejo blasted a three-run home run to give the Celts the 10-run cushion, the umpires left the field.

“I didn’t know the 10-run rule was in effect,” Highland Coach Mike Van Cheri said. “I was on my way out to change pitchers when they called it.”

Crepi Coach Scott Muckey, sitting in the third-base dugout near where the umpires left the field, was also caught off guard by the abrupt ending.

“I thought the umpires were walking over here to tell me somebody missed a base or something,” Muckey said.

Show-stopper: Crescenta Valley’s Becca Baldridge quietly went about her business Friday in the Falcons’ softball first-round playoff game against Palmdale.

The slick-fielding shortstop made two superb plays in Antelope Valley’s 7-0 victory.

In the sixth inning, Baldridge backhanded a grounder in the hole and, from her knees, threw out the lead runner at second.

An inning later, Baldridge cut off a grounder up the middle, stepped on second for a force out and threw to first to complete the game-ending double play.

“There’s a reason why she has signed with San Jose State,” Coach Dan Berry said. “On a team full of egos, she hasn’t gotten a whole lot of credit.”

Waterworld: The Southern Section Division II first-round baseball playoff game between Valencia and Rio Mesa was scheduled for Rio Mesa, but it had to be quickly moved.

Rio Mesa Coach Rich Duran arrived at school at 7 a.m. and found the baseball field under water around the plate, third base and down the third-base line, rendering the field unplayable.

Duran said the diamond apparently was saturated overnight or early in the morning, but he didn’t know how it happened.

“It was just a hose running for however long, or something,” Duran said. “We tried to make it workable, but it was just too much. We couldn’t even have played there tomorrow if we had to.”

The Spartans won’t have to.

Rio Mesa lost, 7-1, at Hueneme High, about 10 miles from their home field.