2nd-Rate Effort by CLU : Baseball: Kingsmen win only the one they need to be SCIAC runner-up.

CLAREMONT —  Cal Lutheran needed to win just one of three games this weekend against Pomona-Pitzer to clinch second place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball race and the NCAA playoff bid that likely goes with that position.

The Kingsmen did just that.

But it’s kind of hard to celebrate after losing two out of three, particularly the way they did it.

Cal Lutheran blew a five-run lead and lost, 8-7, in 10 innings in the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader. The Kingsmen eked out a 3-2 victory in the first game. The Sagehens won the series opener, 14-9, Friday in Thousand Oaks.

“Any time we lose two out of three, I’m not happy,” Cal Lutheran Coach Marty Slimak said. “We didn’t play well. If we are fortunate enough to get to the regional, we are going to have play much better.”

After losing the nightcap on a 10th-inning home run by Brett Primack, the Kingsmen weren’t convinced they will make a fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III West regional, although facts seem to indicate otherwise.

Cal Lutheran finished 23-12, 13-8 in the SCIAC. Their record and ranking--ninth in the Division III poll--place them ahead of Pomona and UC San Diego, the other two teams fighting to join third-ranked La Verne in the two-team West regional.

Despite losing two of three to Pomona (18-17, 12-9), the Kingsmen finished a game ahead of the Sagehens in the SCIAC.

Cal Lutheran swept three nonconference games with San Diego.

“I would like to think we’re the team,” Slimak said. “We’ve met all the criteria, but it’s still a decision. It would have been nice not to have to worry about it.”

They’ll worry until May 14, when a panel of coaches names an opponent for the May 19-21 regional at La Verne.

“Right now I don’t feel like we’re going, because we didn’t win the second game and we should have,” Ray Arvizu said. “Now we’ve got to leave it up to a decision when we should have made the decision ourselves.”

The Kingsmen took a 6-1 lead after four innings in the second game. But Cal Lutheran right-hander Jesse Melgoza fell apart in the fifth, allowing five runs after retiring the first two batters.

“We thought we were going to blow them away, but it didn’t work out that way,” Arvizu said. “We just have to learn to put the nail in the coffin.”

The Sagehens took a 7-6 lead on an unearned run against freshman Matt Hernandez in the eighth. But Arvizu’s two-out double in the ninth drove in the tying run.

Primack won the game with a booming home run off Hernandez (3-2). Primack, who hit a tie-breaking three-run homer in the eighth inning Friday, stood at home plate and watched his shot sail into the trees.

The Kingsmen got a break to win the first game. With the score tied, 2-2, in the fifth, Arvizu broke for third just as Pomona catcher Tom Keller tried to pick him off second. Keller’s throw bounced into the outfield and Arvizu scored.

Andrew Barber (2-1) struck out two batters looking at 3-and-2 curveballs with the potential tying run at first in the seventh and final inning. Jim White lined out to third to end the game.