Cal Lutheran Opens Playoffs With 5-4 Victory

SAN DIEGO —  Despite its remarkable first baseball season as an NCAA Division III member, there was still one facet of the game top-ranked Cal Lutheran had not experienced before Friday’s West Regional playoff opener at UC San Diego.

Extra innings.

“We had never been in that situation,” Kingsmen second baseman Jason Wilcox said after helping make sure the experience was short-lived and joyous.

Wilcox’s one-out single in the bottom of the 10th inning drove in pinch-runner Ricardo Bernal and gave Cal Lutheran a 5-4 victory and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Games 2 and 3 will be played today beginning at noon, and Nos. 4 and 5, if necessary, are scheduled for Sunday.

The extra inning notwithstanding, it was hardly a typical game for Cal Lutheran.

Through its first 39 games--36 of them victories--Cal Lutheran had outscored its opponents, 392-96, held a 72-14 home run advantage, and had trailed only a half-dozen or so times.

San Diego’s David Blum hit the only home run Friday, and it helped stake the Tritons (27-7-1) to a 3-0 lead after 6 1/2 innings.

Cal Lutheran’s half of the seventh started inauspiciously--Eddie Lample struck out and Darrell McMillin grounded out--but the next five Kingsmen got hits and Cal Lutheran took a 4-3 lead into the eighth.

The barrage started with singles by Mike Suarez, Eric Johnson and Jay Lucas, with Lucas’s hit to left driving in two. Bob Farber then tripled to deep right field, driving in Lucas, and Farber scored when first baseman David Rex overthrew third trying to nail Farber.

After Kurt Luhrsen replaced Triton starter Bryan Thomason, Dan Smith doubled to left but was stranded when Pete Martin popped to third.

Kingsmen Coach Rich Hill said he was never worried.

“Anytime we get into an intense situation, I feel really good about my guys,” Hill said. “They have such great team chemistry.”

In the 10th, Farber led off with a walk. Smith sacrificed pinch-runner Bernal to second and Pete Martin walked before Wilcox stepped to the plate.