Sage has Super plan

A lot can change for a high school student in 96 days. Interests can generate and fade, relationships can ignite and fizzle, and the relatively rapid state of flux can transform the novel into to the nostalgic.

But when the Sage Hill School baseball team takes the field in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 championship game on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. at UC Riverside, it will have been 96 days since its last defeat.

The top-seeded Lightning (27-1), who have won an Orange County-record 26 consecutive games, will do all they can to make sure that by Saturday evening, the only thing that will have changed is the duration of the momentous monotony.

Crean Lutheran (23-7) will hope to change everything, including a four-game losing streak against its Academy League rival.

“We had a pretty good idea that we were the best two teams in the division,” said Sage Hill Coach Dominic Campeau, who will send arguably the most dominant prep pitcher in Southern California to the mound.

Sage Hill junior Brett Super is 12-0 this season, 24-0 in his last 24 decisions dating back to his freshman season, and 28-2 in a three-year varsity career that has been progressively more impressive. Super has thrown 34 straight scoreless innings, including 16 in a playoff run in which he has allowed only one hit.

In 90 innings this season, Super has allowed 31 hits, struck out 130 and walked only 18. He has fashioned an earned run average of 0.54. He struck out 12 in a quarterfinal no-hitter against Santa Paula for his second complete-game shutout of the postseason, and he registered his second save of the season in Tuesday’s 4-1 semifinal triumph over defending champion Flintridge Prep.

In his career, he has four no-hitters, including two perfect games, and 279 strikeouts in 220 2/3 innings with a 1.02 ERA. His last two seasons, in which he is 21-0, he has 234 strikeouts in 162 innings with an 0.69 ERA.

The 5-foot-10, 160-pound right-hander has a win and a save against Crean this season, posting a line that includes nine innings, three hits allowed, two walks and nine strikeouts. He threw a complete-game two-hitter in a 2-0 win over the Saints on May 3.

“It’s pretty amazing, it really is,” Campeau said of Super’s mound mastery.

Crean will counter with senior ace Will Tomlinson, who allowed five runs (three earned) in 5 2/3 innings of a 5-4 home loss to Sage Hill on May 6. In that game, Tomlinson walked six, struck out 12, and exited having thrown 131 pitches.

Fatigue may be a factor for both pitchers on Saturday, when Inland Empire temperatures are expected to exceed 100 degrees.

But few teams are hotter than Sage Hill, which Campeau said is peaking offensively. The Lightning are hitting .333 in the playoffs (.296 on the season) and eight players in the consistent batting order have at least two postseason hits.

“We’ve been waiting all year for our lineup to click,” Campeau said. “We knew from the beginning that we weren’t going to have an offense that would score 15 or 20 runs a game. But now, guys who are supposed to get on base are doing that. Guys who are supposed to bunt runners over are doing that, and guys who are supposed to come up big with runners in scoring position are doing that as well. Finally, the last two weeks, we’ve been clicking. Before, we were not winning because of our offense, but our offense has been much more involved in the playoffs.”

Sage has outscored four playoff opponents, 21-1, while Crean has posted a 60-7 run differential, including 51-3 before producing a 9-4 semifinal win over Buckley.

Still, good pitching figures to limit good hitting for both teams Saturday.

Sage Hill freshman right fielder and leadoff man Eddie Pelc tops the team in batting average (.488), hits (42), runs (35) and stolen bases (23). Pelc’s 19 runs batted in rank fourth on the squad, but his four postseason RBIs lead the Lightning.

Senior shortstop Cole Tait, bound for NYU, is a team-best seven for 15 in the playoffs (.467) and he has 20 RBIs for the season. He is hitting .330 this season and has 20 steals.

Senior first baseman and cleanup hitter Conner Bock, headed for Cal, shares the team RBI lead with Super at 24, while Daniel Fishman, a freshman infielder is hitting .345 in 46 at-bats, including three for seven in the postseason.

Senior catcher Toby Bush, who rounds out the team’s senior class, has five postseason hits and is batting .314, while junior outfielder Jack Pelc (.285 with 14 RBIs) is four for nine with three RBIs in the playoffs.

Freshmen Conner Hatz and outfielder-pitcher Ashwin Chona (12-0 with an 0.65 ERA), as well as sophomore second baseman Matt King round out the lineup that includes five underclassmen.

But don’t expect a young Sage Hill squad that has never played in a CIF title game to be overwhelmed by the moment.

“I thought at some point, the kids would feel the pressure, but they just don’t,” Campeau said. “We won a lot of close games and there were a lot of times when our younger guys were in tough spots. But they always seem so confident and they thrive. They want those situations. We are blessed to have kids who are extremely mature and competitive and they follow the plan.”