Last-inning lightning dooms Sage Hill

Barry Faulkner

Before visiting Oxford Academy could set a precedent, it had to

repeat one, rallying for the second time in its final at-bat to

defeat Sage Hill School this season in an Academy League baseball

game Tuesday.

Down, 7-4, with only three outs remaining, the Patriots had nine

of their first 10 hitters reach base to fuel an eight-run outburst.

Oxford, which scored four in the last of the seventh to earn an 8-7

win over the Lightning April 4, held on for a 12-7 triumph that

clinched the outright league title with only one league game

remaining.

The championship, the first for any boys program at the

Cypress-based school that opened just three years ago, triggered an

emotional celebration after the final out. Oxford players rushed to

the infield to hug one another, howl and toss their gloves into the

air to commemorate the historic accomplishment.

Sage Hill, meanwhile, could only watch as its league title hopes

were dashed. Though the Lightning (13-7, 9-5 in league) has already

clinched one of the league’s three guaranteed CIF Southern Section

playoff berths, it could have earned a share of the league crown, as

well as the league’s No. 1 playoff designation, by beating Oxford

twice this week.

Instead, Sage Hill, which entered Tuesday’s game tied with

Capistrano Valley Christian for second place, trails CVC by one game

with only Thursday’s clash at Oxford remaining before the playoffs.

Even if Sage wins and CVC loses Thursday, creating a tie for second,

Sage Hill would settle for the league’s No. 3 playoff designation,

having lost two of three to CVC.

“[The Patriots] got the job done in the last inning,” Sage Hill

Coach Bert Emerson said.

There was virtually nothing else to say in the Sage Hill dugout,

where the inhabitants saw two leads vanish, before the fateful

seventh.

Sage Hill opened the scoring in the first, when leadoff man Jordan

Salinger singled, went to second when Matt Kornsweit walked, advanced

to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a balk.

Oxford (17-3, 12-2), which does not have a senior on its roster,

tied it in the second on an unearned run created by the first of six

Sage Hill errors.

Senior Zach Friedrichs doubled in two, then scored on Matt Loper’s

RBI single in the third to give the Lightning its second lead.

But four Sage Hill errors, including two on the same play, helped

the Patriots pull even again, 4-4, in the fifth.

Sage Hill answered immediately with three more runs in the fifth.

Kornsweit started the rally with a one-out single and Wilkins doubled

him home, then scored on Friedrichs’ bloop single to right. The ball

bounced past the Oxford outfielder for a two-base error, sending

Friedrichs to third, where he scored on a wild pitch.

Wilkins relieved Loper (four hits and no earned runs in five

innings) and worked a scoreless sixth, but Oxford was too much in the

seventh, when it parlayed six hits, two walks and one error into an

insurmountable five-run cushion.

“Unfortunately for them and fortunately for us, it was deja vu,”

Oxford Coach Dana Bedard said. “I’ve lost games like that and I know

it’s not a good feeling.”

Friederichs was 2 for 4 with three RBIs and two runs, while

Wilkins was 2 for 3 with one RBI and two runs. Junior shortstop

Robert Thompson was 2 for 3 with two runs, an RBI and five stolen

bases for the Patriots, for whom freshman Billy Ott earned the

victory in relief to improve to 4-0.

*--*

Academy League

Oxford 12, Sage Hill 7

Score by Innings

Oxford 010 030 8 - 12 10 2

Sage Hill 103 030 0 - 7 9 6

Bedard, Florido (5), Ott (6), Swanson (7)

and Bassett-Parkins; Loper, Wilkins (6),

Packard (7) and Kornsweit. W - Ott, 4-0. L

- Wilkins. 2B - Thompson (O), Friedrichs

(SH), Wilkins (SH) 2

*--*