High School Baseball: Sage Hill captures Academy League title
All season, Sage Hill School Coach Dominic Campeau pointed to this week on the calendar. The Academy League baseball title would come down to this week, two games in four days against Crean Lutheran.
Campeau can now cross off Crean Lutheran. With two weeks left in the regular season, Sage Hill has clinched first place outright.
In front of the home crowd on Friday, Sage Hill edged the Saints, 3-1, and claimed its first league crown in six years. Sage Hill improved to 10-0 in league after it took the two-game series against Crean Lutheran, ending the Saints’ two-year run as league champions.
The Lightning players celebrated right after Kellen Ochi shut the door on the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 poll again. Ochi, who escaped a bases-loaded situation in the seventh to hold on for a 6-5 win on the road Tuesday, earned the save, throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings in which he allowed only an infield single.
Crean Lutheran (16-9, 5-3 in league) suffered its third setback in its last four league games. In the previous two years, the Saints only dropped four league contests.
By sweeping Crean Lutheran for the first time in five years, Campeau expects No. 4 Sage Hill to move up in the rankings next week. This is crucial come seeding time for the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs.
“They’ve been ranked No. 1 in CIF for two years and now we swept them,” said Campeau, whose team improved to 15-6 overall. “I definitely expect to be ranked No. 1 [next week].”
Ochi helped Sage Hill’s cause with his relief pitching, as well with his bat. Ochi’s infield single broke up John Swenson’s perfect game in the bottom of the fourth inning.
After Swenson retired the first 10 batters he faced, Ochi grounded to shortstop and beat out the throw to first base. The senior sparked the Lightning, stealing second base, and he was able to tie the game at 1-1. Parker Reposa doubled Ochi in with a shot toward the left-center field gap.
Sage Hill took the lead two batters later. Cole Tait’s grounder bounced off the third baseman and went to the shortstop, whose throwing error to first base allowed Reposa to score.
That was all Conner Bock needed to improve to 5-3. The left-hander went 4 1/3 innings, striking out six, while giving up one run, three hits and three walks.
The fourth is when Bock gave up the run. He walked the leadoff man, Chris Cooper, and then Gavin Folsom got on with a bunt single. A wild pitch moved the runners to third and second, and Cole Dietetrich’s groundout to third base brought home the game’s first run.
Sage Hill answered in the bottom half of the inning, scoring twice to take the lead. Tobias Bush added a run with a double over the left fielder’s head in the fifth, proving to be enough support for Sage Hill to win its third league championship in the program’s history.
“Next week’s going to be a fun week considering that we clinched and kind of that pressure is off of us,” Bush said. “We can breathe a little bit now, but we still want to prepare for the playoffs.”
Two league games are on tap for the Lightning next week, both against Whitney, before wrapping up the regular season with a two-game nonleague series with Inglewood Animo Leadership.
The postseason begins with wild-card action on May 20, but Sage Hill is guaranteed a first-round game at home on May 22 and most likely one of the top four seeds. Crean Lutheran, which earned the top seed last year and reached the semifinals, has four league games left.
“Congratulations to Sage Hill, [it] earned the league title,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Jake Haney, whose pitchers, Swenson and Paul Sardo, allowed only three hits. “But we’ll move forward. It doesn’t feel good, but our season doesn’t end now. If we play like we had been playing and get hot and make a run, I don’t think anybody will care about the fact that we didn’t win a league championship.”
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Academy League
Sage Hill 3, Crean Lutheran 1
SCORE BY INNINGS
Crean 000 100 0 – 1 4 2
Sage Hill 000 210 x – 3 3 1
Swenson, Sardo (6) and Gaynor; Bock, Ochi (5) and Bush. W – Bock, 5-3. L – Swenson. 2B – Reposa (SH), Bush (SH).