Mater Dei Wins, Clinches Playoff Berth

Mater Dei baseball teams are usually good to great. And often they are serious and straight-laced.

The 1997 Monarchs are certainly good. Their 11-4 victory over host Trabuco Hills on Friday clinched a Division I playoff berth and will strengthen their grip on the county’s No. 1 ranking next week.

But Bob Ickes admits this team is unlike any other he can recall coaching in recent years.

“This is a pretty loose ship,” said Ickes, after watching Mater Dei improve to 18-3, 11-0. “It’s been a very interesting year. They never let me relax. It’s like that’s their job.

“But they are very together as a team. They do things together. On the field, if one guy doesn’t pick us up, there’s another who will.”

Yes, between the white lines, the Monarchs do thrive, having now won nine in a row to maintain the widest lead of any league race (three/four games) with four games to play.

On Friday, they battered Trabuco Hills (8-12, 3-8) into submission early, jumping on Mustangs sophomore Todd Gelatka (3-5) for seven runs in three innings.

Gelatka was down 3-0 before he got an out. He hit Micheletti with the game’s first pitch, then gave up back-to-back home runs to Mike Kolbach--his sixth of the season and fifth in the last eight games--and Brett Kay, his sixth.

But the Mustangs, thanks to a two-run triple by Graham Robby in the first, trailed only by a run when the game unraveled in the third.

With two out, Gelatka had two strikes on Jon Kinney when he grooved the next pitch and Kinney singled to center. Kevin Mitchell walked. Ryan Fitzpatrick followed with a three-run homer, his third of the season.

Mater Dei scored again on an single by Kolbach, who had three hits and four RBIs, before Gelatka struck out Kay on a much harder 0-2 pitch this time.

“That [sequence] sums up our season,” Mustang Coach Randy Brouwer said. “It hasn’t always been pitching; we screwed up some plays in the field. But we don’t close people out.

“The other day against Mater Dei we’re in a tie game, and have 1-2 count on Kolbach. The pitch before we had him swinging at a curve in the dirt. But now we hang a pitch at the belt, he whacks it and they go on to win. When you play these guys you must play flawlessly.”

In other South Coast League games:

Capistrano Valley 2, San Clemente 0--Mike Clifton’s two-run homer off James Anderson in the sixth was the difference for Capistrano Valley. It was the first earned runs Anderson (4-1) had given up in 39 innings this season.

Rik Currier struck out seven in four innings and Tom Grotsky (1-1) had five strikeouts over the final three innings to earn the victory for the Cougars (11-9-1, 7-3-1).

Mission Viejo 13, Dana Hills 7--Scott Carr singled in the go-ahead run and Fred Dominguez hit a grand slam in a seven-run seventh inning to help Mission Viejo (9-12, 4-7) overcome a 7-6 deficit. Gerry Delin was two for four with a home run and four RBIs for the Diablos.