High School Baseball: Sage’s Super scores no-hitter

Much like the game itself, the scoring decision that ultimately confirmed a no-hitter for Sage Hill School pitcher Brett Super on Friday could have gone either way.

But far less debatable is the supremacy on display this season by both Super and the top-seeded Lightning, as both extended monumental streaks with a 2-0 home victory over Santa Paula in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 6 baseball playoffs.

Sage Hill (26-1) has now won 25 straight heading into Tuesday’s semifinal against visiting No. 4-seeded Flintridge Prep (19-5), which rallied from a 6-0 deficit to claim a 7-6 quarterfinal win over Salesian in eight innings Friday.

Super, who struck out 12, was perfect through five innings and allowed just two base runners in his second straight complete-game playoff shutout. He improved to 12-0 this season. Further, Super is now 24-0 in his last 24 decisions, dating back to 2014, and he has now thrown 351/3 consecutive scoreless innings to lower his season earned-run average to 0.56.

Super, who allowed one hit and struck out 13 in his first-round playoff win on May 19, is 28-2 in his varsity career, and in one of those losses (to St. Margaret’s in 2014), he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

Super, who threw a perfect game earlier this season and now has four varsity no-hitters (including two perfectos), issued a walk to start the sixth inning Friday.

With one out in the seventh, Santa Paula’s leading hitter, junior Anthony Morales, who entered Friday batting .452, hit a sharp ground ball inside third base.

Sage third baseman Daniel Fishman ranged to his right and lunged awkwardly toward the ground, bending at the waist, in a failed attempt to snare the ball. Instead of trying to backhand the ball just inside his right foot, Fishman swept his open glove hand toward the line. The ball kicked off his glove and dribbled onto the outfield grass midway between Fishman and the shortstop as Morales reached first base.

The official scorer, which by rule is determined by the home team, and in this case was the Sage Hill coaching staff, agreed after the game to score the play an error.

Santa Paula Coach Gabe Diaz referred to the play as a hit in his postgame comments, and Super himself said it was a tough error to assign Fishman.

But Sage Hill Coach Dominic Campeau said he and his staff reached a consensus on calling it an error.

“[Fishman] said it never touched the bag and he handcuffed himself,” Campeau said. “If it’s a backhand, it’s a routine play, but he went around it and it bounced off [his glove] and we scored it an error.”

Super and Santa Paula senior pitcher Tony Contreras took turns handcuffing opposing hitters.

Contreras, who had thrown eight innings and started just two games this season coming in, had eight strikeouts through four innings, including a stretch in which he fanned six straight hitters.

“[Contreras] was dealing,” Super said. “It was kind of fun pitching, taking a rest, watching [Contreras] deal, then going: ‘All right, let’s see if I can match that.’”

Sage broke a scoreless tie in the fifth. Fishman led off with a line single to center and advanced on Matt King’s sacrifice bunt. Junior left fielder Jack Pelc followed with an opposite-field double inside the left-field line to give Super all he would need.

“We took a deep breath after that first run, because we knew that Super wasn’t going to give up a run, regardless,” Pelc said. “He just doesn’t give up runs, so one run was more than enough.”

After a tiring Contreras, who struck out nine, walked the bases loaded with one out in the sixth, Pelc notched his second RBI with a sacrifice fly off senior reliever Steven Padilla to plate Conner Hatz.

Super, who threw 90 pitches, struck out the first hitter in the seventh, then struck out Bryce Garcia for the second out after Morales reached on the error.

Catcher Toby Bush then threw out Morales trying to steal second to end the game.

Fishman was two for two with a walk and a stolen base to lead a five-hit attack that included singles by Super and Edward Pelc.

“He’s good,” Diaz said of the 5-foot-9, 155-pound Super, whose ERA during the 24 straight winning decisions is 0.72 with 243 strikeouts in 176 innings. “He doesn’t have that stature of a dominant pitcher, but when he gets on the mound, you can see that he’s in control and he pitches like he’s 6-3. He kept us off-balance and blew the ball by us when he needed to. We couldn’t get anything started.”

Campeau said he hopes the playoff no-hitter will help fortify Super’s growing reputation.

“I don’t think he gets the recognition he needs,” Campeau said. “This year he has gotten lot of publicity. He is 12-0 and this and that. But I mean, Dude, how many pitchers are better than that in Orange County? The Kid is 28-2 now in his career. I know he’s not 6-5 and he doesn’t throw 98 mph, but come on, the kid does not get hit, period. And it has been like this forever. I know there are colleges paying attention to him, but whoever gets this kid, they will look like a genius. I mean, it’s lights out.”

Jack Pelc was also generous with praise for Super.

“Pitching is not something we have to worry about with Super, and it makes everybody’s job a lot easier,” Pelc said. [Friday] was beyond clutch, because that’s a very good hitting team [Santa Paula entered with a .311 combined average and had outscored its first two playoff opponents, 28-0]. Super is just so good. You can’t really rank each outing, because one is just better than the last one. This is just the most recent and the most important.

“[Super’s teammates] didn’t know he had won his last 24 decisions,” Jack Pelc said. “Wow! That just shows you what type of guy Super is, because he doesn’t really throw around his stats. I mean I know I would if I was 24-0.”

It’s the first time Sage Hill has advanced past the quarterfinals, the round in which its season ended in 2015.

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CIF Playoffs

Division 6 quarterfinal

Sage Hill 2,

Santa Paula 0

SCORE BY INNINGS

S. Paula 000 000 0 – 0 0 0

Sage Hill 000 011 x – 2 5 1

Contreras, Padilla (6) and Stewert; Super and Bush. W – Super, 12-0. L – Contreras, 1-1. 2B – J. Pelc (SH).

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Twitter: @BarryFaulkner5