Van Wagenen Homer Cooks St. Bernard, 2-0 : Prep baseball: Crespi senior settles pitchers’ duel with two-out, two-run shot in seventh inning.

The parents of St. Bernard High pitcher Robert Cox run the best snack bar in the Mission League. The secret, it seems, is in their top-secret barbecue sauce.

Attending a ballgame at St. Bernard? Bring a few extra bucks and a big napkin.

“Best sausage dog you’ll ever eat,” Crespi Coach Scott Muckey said.

Brodie Van Wagenen did some hot dogging of his own Saturday. While Cox’s parents were serving up sizzling fare on the sideline, Van Wagenen was sticking a fork in their son and relishing every moment of it.

Van Wagenen belted a clutch, two-run homer off Cox with two out in the top of the seventh inning to hand Crespi a 2-0 victory over St. Bernard in a critical Mission League game.

What’s more, Van Wagenen pulled a Reggie Jackson act, flicking the bat away and standing near the batter’s box until the ball landed in the street, well beyond the short fence in left-center field.

“In this park, when you hit it good, you know it’s gone,” said Van Wagenen, a senior second baseman who has hit a team-high six homers. “I didn’t plan that (celebration). It was the seventh inning, so it wasn’t your normal, everyday thing.”

Nor was it a run-of-the-mill game. With a shot at the league title in the balance, both teams were at their best. Right-handers Cox and Jeff Suppan did not give an inch until the seventh when Crespi catcher Brett Farlow singled and Van Wagenen hit a fastball over the ivy-covered fence. An elderly gentleman, in keeping with the tradition in ivy-covered parks, heaved the opposition’s home-run ball back onto the field.

Crespi’s victory further scrambled the four-way race for the Mission title. St. Bernard (15-10-1, 7-4 in league play) has one game remaining, against last-place Chaminade. Crespi (16-5, 7-3) has games remaining against Notre Dame (13-7-1, 7-3) and Bishop Montgomery. Alemany (15-8-1, 7-4) has one game left, against St. Paul.

It was an important game for Crespi, which had been waiting all afternoon--if not all season--for somebody to seize the day and administer the critical blow. For the first six innings, the Celts somehow managed to avoid scoring, despite numerous chances.

With runners at first and third and two out in the fourth, Cox (5-2) retired Casey Snow on a chopper to the hole at short. In the fifth, with runners at first and second and two out, Van Wagenen lined out to right-center.

With runners at first and third in the sixth, Snow hit a bullet to third baseman Phil Ruhl, who caught Vic Seper in a rundown off third for the second out. Joe Turner grounded to short for the third out.

Suppan (6-2), armed with some of his best stuff, recorded his first shutout of the season. The highly regarded junior allowed just three singles, struck out seven and walked two. He faced one batter over the minimum over the final four innings and allowed one batter to reach third base.

Said Suppan, who avenged one of his losses: “One pitch at a time was my strategy for the game.”

Farlow and Van Wagenen made a strategic adjustment of their own to counter Cox, who was working almost exclusively on the outer half of the plate. Each moved a few inches closer to the plate in his final at-bat.

“He threw me a fastball away, but because I’d moved in I was able to go out and get it,” said Van Wagenen, who has signed a letter of intent with Stanford.

Crespi, after a few ups and downs, seemingly has moved in for the kill.

Said Muckey: “That was a great, well-played game by both sides.”

Or, as they say in the barbecue area, well-done.