College Baseball: One for the eraser for Vanguard

The succinct summation of the Vanguard University baseball team’s performance by its frustrated coach, Rob Pegg, may also have been an effective epitaph for Tuesday’s nonconference game against visiting Marymount of California.

“We didn’t play,” said an obviously miffed Pegg after the 2-2 deadlock was called after 10 innings due to lack of daylight.

The game, which may or may not be resumed when the teams are scheduled to meet on April 5 at Vanguard, was, after all, thoroughly forgettable for the No. 22-ranked Lions, who committed five errors, issued six walks, hit two batters, fired two wild pitches, and suffered an egregious base-running error that cost them a chance at an extra-inning victory.

“I expect a lot more out of these guys,” Pegg said of his veteran lineup, much of which helped the Lions (13-5 coming into Tuesday) reach the NAIA World Series last spring. “It was a weak performance. Guys mentally weren’t there. They took at-bats off and we made five errors. Basically, we have a lot of work to do.”

Errors rendered both Marymount runs unearned, all but canceling out some effective work by four Vanguard pitchers.

Senior closer Michael Jordan, who had not allowed a run in 8 2/3 innings and had recorded four saves in eight appearances coming in, blew a save opportunity in the ninth, when he walked a batter and allowed a hit. He walked the first two Marymount hitters in the 10th, and twice threw seven consecutive balls. He did, however, wriggle himself out of the jam in the 10th.

“Guys aren’t going to be perfect,” Pegg said of Jordan, a hard-throwing right-hander who has struck out 10 and allowed just six hits in 10 2/3 innings this season. “That’s college baseball. [Jordan] has been really good and I was glad he was able to regroup and get out of that [10th-inning] jam. Otherwise, it would have been a loss on the field, instead of a tie or whatever we have going there.”

The Lions helped the Mariners wriggle off the hook in the bottom of the 10th. Junior All-Golden State Athletic Conference performer Brandon Sandoval opened the Vanguard 10th with a double off the left-field fence.

But, with a 2-0 count on the next hitter, senior Paul Keating, Sandoval was picked off second base. The costly blunder prompted third-base coach Pegg to raise his arms outward from his sides with palms up, as if to wonder what his veteran leadoff man was thinking.

Keating followed with a groundout to the second baseman that would have surely advanced Sandoval to third. Allowing the hypothetical to play out, Sandoval would have easily scored on a fly ball to center field by junior Brock Eissman that instead was the third out.

Eissman, while circumstantially denied hero status in the ninth, singled in the Lions’ first run to erase a 1-0 deficit in the third. But Eissman ultimately donned goat horns when his needless throwing error allowed the visitors to tie the score in the ninth.

After a one-out walk, Marymount’s Dylan Hatch singled sharply to right field, where Eissman charged and fielded it cleanly. But as the runner from first base slowed to a stop rounding second base, Eissman, whose strong arm had prevented two runners from tagging on fly balls earlier in the game, uncorked a strong throw that sailed wide of the cutoff man between second and third base. The ball skipped to the fence in foul territory behind third base, allowing both runners to advance 90 feet.

Anthony Collins scored from third when Martin Flores subsequently hit a high chopper to shortstop that produced the inning’s second out. The following hitter flied to center for the third out.

Vanguard senior Jose Rojas, chosen the NAIA Gold Glove Award winner at shortstop last season, booted two ground balls for errors, as did Lions’ junior third baseman Trai Patrick.

Patrick put Vanguard ahead with a sacrifice fly that plated Eissman in the sixth. But the same inning might have yielded more, if not for a lapse on the bases by Rojas.

Rojas, who leads the Lions in batting (.478), hits (33), runs batted in (21), home runs (three), extra-base hits (16), runs (22) and stolen bases (10), was called for interference when he failed to slide running into second base on a fielder’s choice that became a double play due to the interference call. Sam Neufeld, who hit the grounder to third base, was three steps past the bag when the relay throw from the second baseman arrived at first. But the double play ruling instead ended the inning.

The five errors give Vanguard 25 in 19 games, helping opponents produce 19 unearned runs.

Keating led the Lions’ six-hit attack with a single and a double in five at-bats, and he also stole a base.

Junior side-armer Christian Sheehan was the most effective pitcher for Vanguard. Sheehan came on with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth and produced a strikeout to end the threat. That began a string of eight consecutive hitters retired, which was broken up by an error. The only hitter to reach base among the 10 Sheehan faced, came via the aforementioned error.

“[Sheehan] did well,” Pegg said. “All our pitchers did a good job. They did fine. It was the rest of the guys who had a very disappointing effort.”

Senior Michael Ostrea worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings.

Junior starter Roberto Johnson used effective damage control to allow a single unearned run in 3 2/3 innings, despite allowing four hits, walking three and hitting a batter.

Coach John Lauro, who had guided Marymount to a 6-9 mark in its inaugural season entering Tuesday, said he open to perhaps resuming Tuesday’s deadlock when the two teams meet again. But he also suggested that logistics, including a desire to save pitchers for conference competition, could make completing the game unlikely.

Pegg, who said it would be the first tie in his coaching career, noted that whether or not the game would be completed will be discussed later.

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Nonconference

Vanguard 2, Marymount of California 2

SCORE BY INNINGS

MCU 010 000 001 0 – 2 6 2

VU 001 001 000 0 – 2 6 5

Hatch, Yancosek (4), Fernandez (7), Nava (9) and Flores; Johnson, Sheehan (4), Ostrea (7), Jordan (9) and Bettencourt, Wright (8). 2B – Keating (VU), Sandoval (VU).