Crespi Runs Out of Luck; El Dorado Wins

Nobody really needed to look at the scorebook or sneak a peek at the box score.

Crespi Coach Scott Muckey didn’t even have to pause and think.

“Wasn’t it kind of obvious?” Muckey asked after the game. “We sure didn’t help ourselves. We ran ourselves right out of the game.”

While Muckey’s team lost control on the bases, El Dorado’s Steve Gill pitched five innings of hitless relief and hit a two-run home run as El Dorado defeated Crespi, 5-3, in a Southern Section 4-A quarterfinal game Thursday at Los Angeles Valley College in Van Nuys.

If anybody was filling out a report card on Crespi--which requested that the game be moved to Thursday so seniors on the team wouldn’t miss graduation ceremonies tonight--most of the team would be spending some time in study hall catching up on Basic Baserunning.

El Dorado advances to the semifinal round for the second straight year. Tuesday, the Golden Hawks (23-4) will face the winner of today’s game between Lakewood and Bishop Amat.

After scoring 13 runs in each of its first two playoff victories, the Golden Hawks scored five runs in three innings against Crespi. Included in the barrage were two home runs and Bret Boone’s two doubles.

“We may not have had a lot of hits,” El Dorado Coach Steve Gullotti said. “But we really hit some hard shots out there. We’re really swinging the bat well right now. I just hope it continues.”

While El Dorado was swinging from the heels, Crespi (21-6-1) was spinning its wheels.

“They helped us out with some of that baserunning, no question,” Gullotti said. “But we made some good defensive plays out there, too.”

Many of El Dorado’s defensive plays consisted of tagging whatever Crespi player happened to be standing nearby. The Celts had two instances in which a pair of runners occupied the same base after rundown plays, and a Crespi rally in the second was also affected by some aberrant baserunning.

Even though Crespi scored twice to take a brief 2-1 lead in the inning, two outs were recorded on the bases when Pat Murphy and Greg Barton were both tagged out at third after getting caught in rundowns.

El Dorado scored four runs in the third on two-run homers by Gill and Doug Yates, giving the Golden Hawks a 5-2 lead.

Crespi rallied to within 5-3 with a run off Janicki in the third, but Gullotti then brought in Gill, who also earned the victory in relief in El Dorado’s 13-4 victory over Simi Valley on Tuesday.

Gill’s net results were nearly perfect through the sixth, as he retired 11 of 13 batters. In the bottom of the seventh, however, Crespi loaded the bases.

With one out, Kevin Thomas was safe on an error, and Barton and Ken Franco drew walks to load the bases. Gill then struck out Chris Greenmayer and pinch-hitter Mark Cavaretta. El Dorado catcher Chris Olsen recorded the final out when he dropped the third strike and stepped on home, forcing Thomas.