Crespi closer Gilmartin excels at applying the finishing touch

One trend in baseball is for players to select a song to be played on the public address system whenever they come up to bat or arrive from the bullpen.

Scott Muckey, the venerable coach at Encino Crespi, has more than 1,500 songs on his iPod that he plays between innings on the P.A. system at home games, ranging from “Battle of New Orleans” to “Dead Skunk.”

The big question is what song will Muckey allow when closer Sean Gilmartin takes the mound?

“I don’t know,” Muckey said.

The theme song from the movie “The Natural” might fit Gilmartin, a 6-foot-2 junior left-hander who has picked up a team-record nine saves for Crespi (23-5), which plays Whittier California in a Southern Section Division III quarterfinal playoff game today at Valley College.

“I never hear him say anything,” Muckey said. “I give him the ball and say, ‘Do your thing.’ ”

Gilmartin throws his fastball in the high 80s for strikes and has learned to thrive under pressure. He’s 3-0 with 45 strikeouts and a 2.24 earned-run average in 34 1/3 innings.

“My mentality is finish the guys off,” Gilmartin said. “Don’t give them a chance to get back into the game. You have to have mental toughness in order to be a closer.”

Successful closers such as Gilmartin are rare in high school because coaches can’t afford to have players with good arms limited only to relief duty.

Except Gilmartin, who also starts in right field, was lacking consistency as a starting pitcher.

“Something bad seemed to happen,” Muckey said. “If he threw four or five innings, he was likely to have a three- or four-run inning along the way.”

During winter ball, Gilmartin was exceptional in short pitching stints, and a closer was born.

“Right now, he overpowers guys,” Muckey said. “In two years, he might be able to do the same in college.”

What’s startling is how quickly Gilmartin has adjusted to the closer role. Nobody told him how to act.

“I watch guys in the major leagues and see what they do,” he said.

Gilmartin refuses to concede he has become a closer permanently, but added “I think I’ve proved myself in a closing role.”

With two more victories, Crespi would advance to Thursday’s 4:30 p.m. Division III final at Dodger Stadium, giving Gilmartin the opportunity to do an Eric Gagne impersonation.

“If we get there, he’ll probably be in,” Muckey said.

Now, if only someone can come up with appropriate music for Gilmartin’s entrance.

How Santa Ana Mater Dei (20-8) has been able to reach the Division I baseball quarterfinals with a pitching staff that features a freshman, two sophomores and a junior ought to give shivers to future opponents.

“These guys are going to be amazing,” senior outfielder Connor Bernatz said.

Mater Dei coaches rave about their freshman class. Outfielder Cory Hahn, brought up from junior varsity, has nine hits in 23 at-bats. Pitcher Matt Blanchard is 3-0 and threw a no-hitter against Orange Lutheran.

But the best Mater Dei player this season has been junior outfielder Scott Colton, who’s batting .430 with 31 runs batted in and seven home runs. The Monarchs play at Placentia El Dorado today.

All is not gloomy about the future of the pole vault in high school, especially when families such as the Starks from Oak Park embrace the sport.

UCLA-bound Aubree Stark won the Southern Section Division III girls’ pole vault title last week with a mark of 11 feet 6 inches. Her sister, Madison, an eighth-grader, has cleared 10 feet. And the best Stark of all could be brother Connor, a seventh-grader who has cleared 11 feet and might be a future state champion.

The best basketball tournament of the summer is set for June 26 to July 1 at Los Angeles Fairfax. Three state boys’ champions — Fairfax, Santa Ana Mater Dei and North Hollywood Campbell Hall — are entered, along with Westchester, North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake and Woodland Hills Taft, among others.

Fairfax and Taft are set to play in a spring league game at 6 p.m. June 4 at Fairfax.

So long, Bryshon Nellum, and welcome, Reggie Wyatt.

The former, a Long Beach Poly standout, is graduating and heading to USC, and the latter, a sophomore at Riverside North, may be the next great track and field athlete from Southern California.

At the Southern Section championships, Wyatt won the Division II 400 in 46.87 seconds and set a Division II record in winning the 300 intermediate hurdles in 36.57. He’ll face Nellum in the 400 at tonight’s Masters Meet at Cerritos College.