This One’s For You, Bud

He hugged his players, he kissed his wife.

Then Bud Murray walked off Edison Field with a smile and, at the same time, a sense of sadness.

Murray, retiring coach at Hart High, did what few coaches ever do. He retired as a winner in a championship game.

Hart fended off a seventh-inning rally and defeated Santa Maria Righetti, 10-9, in the Southern Section Division II baseball championship game Saturday at Edison Field, winning its first baseball title in school history.

“I’m happy, but I’m really happy for this bunch of kids,” said Murray, who then said something quietly, almost to himself. “We won the championship.”

Unlike previous playoff games, this didn’t come easily for Hart.

Protecting a 10-7 lead, pitcher Jamie Shields of Hart surrendered a two-run home run to Aaron McKenzie in the bottom of the seventh.

But Shields (11-0) retired the next three batters, ending the game by striking out Andrew Beekman.

“This is the most exciting day of my life,” Shields said. “You can’t get any better than this.”

A trip to the mound by Murray after Shields gave up McKenzie’s home run proved to be somewhat prophetic.

“I went out and told the kids, ‘We’ve been up by one run all day and that’s what’s going to hold us,’ ” Murray said.

How true.

Surprisingly, the pregame speech by Murray, who has coached high school and college baseball for 39 years, 22 of them at Hart, did not focus on the game’s importance.

“I told them this is not the most-important thing that’s ever going to happen to them,” Murray said. “Your first-born [child] is going to be more important. This is just something that you should go out and enjoy.”

Hart wasn’t entirely festive during Righetti’s comeback in the bottom of the seventh.

“I was scared a little bit,” said shortstop Tim Hutting of Hart, who had two singles, walked twice and scored three runs. “But Jamie’s going to be in the pros some day, so I knew we were in good hands. I was nervous, but I knew he was going to pull through.”

Righetti, making its first appearance in a championship game, proved to be more than resilient.

Second-seeded Hart (27-4) scored twice in the top of the first inning, but the unseeded Warriors (24-7) countered with two runs in the bottom half.

Hart scored another run in the second inning, Righetti tied it, 3-3, in the third.

Hart took an 8-3 lead after a five-run third inning, and, sure enough, Righetti clawed back to within 8-7.

A run-scoring double by catcher Brandon Montemayor, who has been battling a hamstring injury the past month, proved to be the game-winning hit for Hart.

Montemayor, who had only one hit in his previous three playoff games, drove in Marke Horvat from second base to give Hart a three-run lead in the top of the seventh. It was his third hit of the game.

Coach Chris Stevens of Righetti knew it would be a close one.

“If you had asked us before the game, both sides would have said it would be a one-run game,” said Stevens, a former coach at Oxnard College and Cal State Northridge.

But on this night, the extra run belonged to Hart.

And to its departing coach.

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BY THE NUMBERS

519: Victories in the 39-year coaching career of retiring Coach Bud Murray of Hart High

123: Strikeouts for pitcher Jamie Shields of Hart in 71 1/3 innings this season

57: Runs scored by Hart in five playoff games

50: Hits Tim Hutting and Ryan Haag had this season

1: Baseball championships Hart has won