Summer Baseball : AMERICAN LEGION : Encino-Crespi Beats Darkness, Sepulveda

Umpires and coaches met between the mound and home plate Wednesday as darkness began to fall upon the Valley College baseball field. The meeting was called to discuss whether the game between American Legion District 20 hotshots Sepulveda and Encino-Crespi should be called because of darkness.

Encino-Crespi right-hander Phil Aghajanian, meanwhile, tried to get the group’s attention. Aghajanian was starting his first inning of relief and needed to fire his complement of warm-up tosses.

With the meeting in the way, Encino-Crespi catcher Brett Farlow moved up the first-base line and fielded Aghajanian’s pitches.

Not that it mattered. Aghajanian was just as confounding as the pitcher he relieved, Jeff Suppan, as the pair combined to down Sepulveda, 3-2, in nine innings.

Suppan and Aghajanian held Sepulveda (16-5) to six hits and no earned runs as Encino-Crespi (17-5) moved ahead of Sepulveda in the Southern Division standings. Encino-Crespi, which clinched at least a wild-card berth in the playoffs, has one game remaining in the regular season and Sepulveda has two.

Suppan, who entered the game with an earned-run average of 1.25 and 64 strikeouts in 51 innings, struck out 10 through the first eight innings, but it wasn’t good enough. Suppan’s defense failed him and the score was tied, 2-2, at the end of the regularly scheduled seven innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, the game was within two outs of being ruled a tie by the umpires. But with one out, Joe Ruggiero doubled to left-center off Kevin Grant (2-2) to start the winning rally.

Earlier, Ruggiero saved a run when he made a diving grab in left field of Brent Fullmer’s line drive with runners on first and third in the seventh.

Javier Avila followed Ruggiero’s double with a walk that set up a force play, but Brodie VanWagenen drilled a double over a drawn-in outfield and into the gap in left-center to drive in Ruggiero.

“Things could have gone on like this forever,” said VanWagenen, who two weeks ago returned to the lineup after suffering a broken left ankle in a Legion game. “These guys are too good to keep going on like that.”

Grant and Suppan were arguably too good for anybody. Grant allowed two earned runs on seven hits and struck out eight. He dodged bullets several times, particularly in the bottom of the seventh. With one out and the bases loaded, Grant enticed Brett Farlow to ground into a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.

“Kevin Grant pitched a great game and made all the big pitches when he needed to,” Encino-Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said. “That’s why he’s their ace.”

Suppan was aces to Fullmer, whom he struck out three times in a row. Dating to the first time the teams met last month, Fullmer--who entered the game batting .516--has whiffed in seven consecutive at-bats against Suppan.

Sepulveda took a 2-0 lead in the third when the Encino-Crespi defense uncharacteristically caved in. Justin Bass, who had two hits, reached base on first baseman Dan Arnold’s fielding error and scored when Chris Portugal’s single skipped by Ruggiero in left for a two-base error.

Portugal was picked off third by Suppan, but third baseman Joe Turner dropped the ball as he attempted to apply the tag and Portugal scored for a 2-0 lead.

Encino-Crespi tied the score in the bottom of the inning as Ruggiero atoned for his mistake by driving in Arnold with a single. Ruggiero scored an unearned run when, as he stole third base, catcher Russell Ortiz fired the ball into left field for an error.

Aghajanian, despite the delay in his warm-up routine, pitched a scoreless ninth to improve to 7-0.