Monarch Rout Prompts Mercy-Rule Bashing

Mater Dei’s 10-0, South Coast League victory over visiting Dana Hills Friday gave both coaches a chance to step on the soapbox.

And neither wanted to talk much about the Monarchs’ 11-hit barrage that ended after 4 1/2 innings because of a mercy rule put into effect nationally this season.

“It’s a stupid rule, just stupid,” Mater Dei Coach Bob Ickes said of the rule that halts a game after the fourth inning when a team holds a 10-run lead. “They want to keep playing. We want to keep playing. It’s a stupid rule.

“You can’t get kids in the game that you normally could in a game like this. It forces you to cut kids.”

Dana Hills Coach Bob Canary said he didn’t like getting walloped the way the Dolphins did and said the mercy rule just made things worse.

“I echo what Ickes said,” Canary said. “I’ve been coaching for 17 years and this is the dumbest thing the National High School Federation has done. We’ve been on both ends. We mercied Lakewood [in the Loara Tournament] a couple of weeks ago, and they were unhappy with the rule because it denies you a chance to get back into the game. It’s hypocritical because you want to get more kids in the game and you can’t.”

Dana Hills was out of this one early, mercy rule or not. Mater Dei scored a run in the first inning, two in the second and six in the third, the big blow being a towering three-run home run to straight-away center field by third baseman Pat Manning.

About the only drama came in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ickes sent a couple of pinch-hitters to the plate and it didn’t look as if the Monarchs were going to get that 10th run. But despite two strikeouts by Dana Hills relief pitcher Paul Hindman, an infield single, a Dolphin error, a hit batter and Kris Hernandez’s RBI single did the trick.

“We just had our bats today and when we’re hitting, we’re tough to beat,” Ickes said. “They’re a better team than that.”

Manning went three for three and drove in six runs. Hernandez, batting in the leadoff spot, went four for four, drove in two runs and scored three.

Monarch pitcher Nick Lovato (3-0) gave up two singles in four innings and ran his scoreless string to 17 innings.

In other South Coast League games:

Mission Viejo 3, San Clemente 1 (8)--Scott Carr’s two-run homer in the eighth won it for Mission Viejo (5-3, 1-1). Joey Reid (2-1) pitched a four-hitter and didn’t give up an earned run for the Diablos. Reid has given up only one earned run in 24 innings.

Trabuco Hills 6, Capistrano Valley 4--Capistrano Valley’s Jake Manning hit a three-run home run in the third inning to make it a one-run game, but visiting Trabuco Hills (7-2, 3-0) extended its lead in the fifth on Adam Anderson’s homer. Brian Murphy’s two-run single in the third scored the decisive run.