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| Single to right in the second inning. |
Sometimes it's just not in the cards. That was the case on Saturday as the Fallbrook Warriors handily defeated the Calvary Lions 9-0 in a game where it seemed nothing went right for the Lions.
The top of the first inning proved ominous when junior Caleb Whitley lined an apparent one-out base hit down the left field line. The diving outfielder fielded the ball on a hop but gave a splendid acting performance by pretending to catch the ball and the umpires thought it was believable and thumbed Whitley out. Sam Sheehan followed when after reaching base on an error, stole second base. The catcher's throw was far off-line and the secondbaseman lunged at Sheehan and missed the tag by 2-3 feet yet the base umpire was suckered in by the fake tag and called him out as well. Right away Calvary knew they had the task of not only beating a tough Fallbrook team, but overcoming misfortune as well. In all, the umpires awarded two academy awards to the Fallbrook defense for their first inning acting performance.
But this is baseball and an umpire's calls should have no impact on how you approach a game. Good teams put it behind them and overcome and bad teams let it effect them. This was a day where a good team let it get the best of them - and they paid the price.
The momentum gained by Fallbrook in the first inning had to be quickly turned around by Calvary to get the game back in order, but the Lions did not answer the call. Starting pitcher Isaac Conover, coming off a solid pitching performance versus Santa Fe Christian in his last outing, struggled with his control early and walked the leadoff hitter to keep Fallbrook's momentum flowing. The second hitter laid down a sacrifice bunt that became an infield hit when Conover slipped on the freshly mowed infield grass in an attempt to field the ball. Following a hard lineout to right, the cleanup hitter topped a bouncer in the hole to short, the ball was bobbled by the shortstop but he would have had no play at any base so it went for an infield single to load the bases. The next hitter drew a walk to force in Fallbrook's first run. On the next pitch, the following batter pounded a ball straight down onto home plate and it shot high in the air and all second baseman Kallin Iwasaki could do was wait for it to come down as the runners all advanced a base for the Warrior's 3rd infield hit of the inning giving them an early 2-0 lead. Another bases loaded walk forced in a third run. Luckily, Calvary dodged further damage when the 8th hitter grounded into a nifty 4-6-3 double play to bail the Lion's out of the early jam.
The Lion's posed their biggest threat to score in their half of the second when Russell Harmening and Matt Hartman started the inning with back-to-back singles but the potential comeback was erased when a groundout and two strikeouts ended the rally.
Fallbrook added their 4th run in the third when they hit a one-out double down the left field line and the runner advanced to third on a wild pitch. Two batters later he scored on another infield hit.
Sophomore lefty David Carpenter relieved Conover in the top of the 4th inning but the wheels came off the bus when two infield errors, a walk, a hit-by-pitch, 3 wild pitches and a timely double helped Fallbrook score 3 unearned runs increasing their lead to 7-0.
In the 5th Carpenter did not help his own cause by walking the leadoff hitter on 4 straight pitches, and as the they do 70% of the time, he scored.
The Warriors added their 9th and final run when they turned their 5th infield hit of the day into a run off senior righthander Brock Bentley.
Offensively, Calvary was lead by Hartman who singled twice. Whitley, Harmening, Sam Hebert and Alex Nurding also chipped in hits.
Overall, Calvary hit the ball harder and better than their opponent but Fallbrook pitcher Matt Jepsen pitched tough when it counted and shutout Calvary for the first time in two years. He did not walk a batter and effectively changed speeds and rose to the occasion and threw his best pitches with runners in scoring position.
In comparison, Calvary pitchers walked 7 and hit 3 batters. They also threw 6 wild pitches and consistently missed their spots and were off target all day. They did a great job by allowing only 3 non-infield hits, but when a pitching staff allows 10 runners to reach by walk or hit by pitch, they have created for themselves a situation where the chances are extremely high that they will not be successful.
Obviously, work needs to be done to get back on track because the March schedule will grow more challenging.
Calvary faces a tough Canyon Crest team on Tuesday in the final contest of the Pirate/Falcon Classic. They begin play the following week in the North County Tournament.
The loss puts Calvary's record at 3-2.
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