Sage Hill loses ground in playoff race

NEWPORT COAST ? It was an otherwise ordinary seventh-inning foul ball, but it spoke volumes.

The bench players for St. Margaret’s responded faster than Sage Hill’s fielders to foul ball during Tuesday’s Academy League matchup with Sage Hill.

That fact wasn’t lost on Sage Hill Coach Bert Emerson. For him, it was a microcosm of the whole game, a 9-1 victory for St. Margaret’s.

“They’re outhustling us to the baseball,” he told his team. “That’s the problem, gentlemen. This is our park.”

But the visiting Tartans (7-9, 5-7 in league) didn’t care, scoring runs in five different innings off three different Lightning pitchers. With the loss, Sage Hill (6-12, 5-7 in league) fell into a tie with St. Margaret’s for the Academy League’s third and final automatic berth into the CIF Southern Section Division VI playoffs.

Each team has three games left to play in league, including a rematch on Friday in San Juan Capistrano.

“We’ve just got to go back to basics and rekindle the fire,” Emerson said. “We didn’t play with a lot of energy, a lot of heart today. We’ve got to find that. That’s what we’ll be spending the next couple of days doing.”

Sage Hill starter Chris Mazzo hit Mark Kanow with the very first pitch of the game, and Kanow later scored on an infield single. But the Lightning stormed back in the bottom of the first, when Doug McAfee’s triple to deep right-center scored Bryan Kornswiet.

St. Margaret’s starter Brendon Salisbury recovered to strike out the side, and struck out seven through the first three innings. He went the distance, scattering three hits. After the first inning, no Lightning runner got past first base until the bottom of the seventh.

Mazzo, meanwhile, struggled in the second inning. With two outs and runners at the corners, he walked Kanow to load the bases. Two more walks to Austin Holden and Jeff Frum ? both on four pitches ? plated two and gave the Tartans a 3-1 lead.

Emerson brought in Danny Hurst, who balked home a fourth run in the second inning but went on to pitch effectively for several innings.

“I guess it wasn’t (Mazzo’s) day, but he tried to battle,” Emerson said. “Fortunately, we’ve got some guys who can come in behind him. They came in and pitched fairly well, but not good enough for us to win today.”

St. Margaret’s scored again in the fourth inning on a wild pitch, then got run-scoring hits from Tom Jenkins and Matt Lyman in the fifth to go up 7-1. The Tartans added two more runs in the seventh on an infield single and sacrifice fly.

Sage Hill shortstop Zach Milder made an impressive leaping grab in the sixth inning, robbing a St. Margaret’s player of a hit. Offensively, however, the highlights just weren’t there.

The Lightning had runners at the corners with one out in the bottom of the seventh, but a strikeout and groundout later and the game was over.

The Sage Hill loss sets up a very important rematch on Friday, considering that the Lightning close the regular season with two games against Oxford Academy next week. As of Tuesday, Oxford was unbeaten on the season (17-0, 11-0 in league).

St. Margaret’s finishes its league schedule next week against second-place Capistrano Valley Christian.