Baseball: St. Francis Shocks Chaminade with Late Rally

St. Francis found itself in a tight spot against Chaminade on Tuesday. Down one run in the bottom of the seventh with nobody on base, the Golden Knights faced Chaminade pitcher Mathew Troupe, who had struck out 11 batters in the game and allowed just three unearned runs. To make matters worse, nine-hole hitter P.J. Dezotell was at bat.

“I told the team before the inning to just keep fighting,” St. Francis coach Brian Esquival said. “Just to leave it all on the field.”

Despite the daunting odds, the Golden Knights rallied to secure a 5-4 win over Chaminade — a team ranked No. 2 in the latest CIF-Southern Section Division 2 coaches' poll. 

Dezotell began the comeback when he worked a seven-pitch at-bat and laced a single to left field. Dezotell then stole second base and advanced to third on a wild pitch while Troupe walked Jefferson Nolan.

Chaminade coach Frank Mutz then made two costly decisions. First, he relieved his ace pitcher with lefty Kevin Lewallyn. And second, he instructed his catcher not to attempt a throw on Nolan should he steal second. Nolan promptly stole second base.

With the tying and winning runs in scoring position, David Olmedo-Barrera strode to the plate having already singled twice.

“They started me with an fastball inside and I missed,” Olmedo-Barrera said. “I kept looking fastball and he threw one outside, and I just went with the pitch.

Olmedo-Barrera’s line drive into the left field gap brought home both runners as St. Francis took the lead.

“It’s a huge win for us. It puts us in a good position for the rest of the series,” he said. 

The Golden Knights got a strong pitching performance from ace Joey Malham who threw a complete game, allowing two earned runs and striking out five. Malham’s only struggles came in the fourth when he allowed four hits and walked in a run. A fielding error brought in two more runs.

“We could’ve caved in at that point but we came right back and scored some runs,” Esquival said. “It was huge just to know that we could hit (Troupe).”

St. Francis (8-5) managed to get two runners on base in the bottom of the fourth inning, but it seemed it would be for naught when Troupe struck out Tei Vanderford and Jeff Garavaglia. However, All-League catcher Dave Hubinger came through with a single into center field to score both runners. Hubinger scored on a single by Anders Schraer. 

“(Troupe) had confidence to throw any of his pitches in any count,” Hubinger said. “I was trying to put the ball in play and make them field it.” 

The victory improves St. Francis to 3-2 in the Mission League. They will face Chaminade (8-3, 4-1) again on Thursday when Tei Vanderford will take the mound.