JSerra Rallies to Edge Mater Dei, 10-9, to Pull Into Tie Atop Trinity League

Tuesday night's Trinity League clash between Mater Dei and JSerra featured four home runs and a slew of outfield drives, but the most important hit of the evening barely managed to roll a few feet from home plate. Lions senior Joey Ponder laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score pinch-runner Parker Johnson from third base with one out in the bottom of the seventh, capping off a 10-9 comeback victory over the visiting Monarchs.

With both teams recently creeping up in the national rankings and establishing themselves as CIF Southern Section Division 1 title favorites, the stakes were high in their second meeting of the season. Mater Dei (17-5, 8-2 in league) clobbered the Lions in their first go-round, 10-3, on March 26 in Santa Ana and could have distanced itself from JSerra (19-3, 8-2) with another win on Tuesday.

The Lions jumped ahead early with three runs in the second inning. Seniors Grant Davis and Clay Williamson came through with consecutive RBI base hits off Monarchs ace Ty Moore with one out in the frame to put JSerra ahead 3-0.

Moore entered the matchup with a 7-1 pitching record, which included a three-hitter against the Lions in March. The junior couldn’t duplicate his dominance on the road, but was bailed out by an astounding offensive onslaught by Mater Dei third baseman Ryan Teel.

The Monarchs loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning and Moore capitalized by sending a streaming line drive past JSerra pitcher Keaton Siomkin, moving each runner up one base, scoring right-fielder Ryan Barr. Siomkin struck out cleanup hitter Jeremy Martinez in the next at-bat to bring Teel to the plate with one out.

Teel took one strike before blasting a go-ahead grand slam over the left-field wall. The junior’s long ball quickly changed the complexion of the game and gave the Monarchs a 5-3 advantage.

Ponder cut Mater Dei’s advantage to 5-4 in the bottom half of the third when he singled to left field, scoring junior Tanner Bily, who led off the frame with a triple to deep center field. Singles by Trent Boras and Davis loaded the bases for Williamson with two outs. The center-fielder hit a shot down the right-field line but was robbed by Monarchs first baseman Davis Tominaga, who sprawled to his left, speared a sharp one-hopper and tagged the bag for the final out of the inning. Tominaga’s defensive effort likely prevented Williamson from registering a bases-clearing extra-base hit and set the stage for more Mater Dei offensive heroics.

The Monarchs attacked Siomkin again early in the fourth inning. Moore nearly clipped the pitcher for a second time with another RBI single up the middle that drove in Barr, who reached on a fielding error.

Fresh off his grand slam an inning earlier, Teel stepped to the plate with Moore and Austin Monte on base and two outs. Despite being down 1-2 in the count, Teel muscled an opposite field home run to right field. The third baseman’s second shot of the game and seventh of the season stayed inside the foul pole by about eight feet and gave Mater Dei a seemingly commanding 9-3 lead.

JSerra didn’t waste any time chipping away at the six-run deficit. Outfielder Tyler Krause led off the bottom of the fourth by launching a solo home run down the left-field line on the first pitch he saw from Moore.

The Lions later tacked on another run in the inning to cut the score to 9-6 and chase Moore from the contest. The Lions piled on 10 hits against the lefty, who struggled to make batters miss in a little over three innings of work.

The same can’t be said for Siomkin, who surprised many in the packed stands when he settled down from disastrous third and fourth innings and silenced the seemingly cacaphonous Mater Dei bats late in the game.

“I felt better as the innings went by,” Siomkin said. “I wanted to stay in there and battle and I’m glad I had the opportunity to do that.”

The senior right-hander faced only 10 batters in the final three innings of his improbable complete-game effort, picking up two of his 10 strikeouts in the seventh inning.

“I felt Keaton got stronger as the game progressed,” JSerra coach Brett Kay said. “His stuff was sharper in those last few innings and that’s the kind of pitcher he’s been for us. He’s our horse. A lot of people might question sticking with a guy through the game like that, but I really trust him.”

JSerra narrowed the gap with three runs in the fifth inning. Bily blasted the game’s fourth home run to cut the deficit to 9-7. Davis then followed up consecutive singles off the bats of Boras and Teah with a two-RBI double that knotted the score at 9-9 with two outs in the sixth inning.

Siomkin’s biggest late-game test came when he went toe-to-toe with Teel for a fourth time in the game. Teel had already tallied three hits and seven RBIs against Siomkin when he stepped to the plate with a man on first in the seventh inning. A stressed and silent crowd watched as Siomkin finally figured out the third baseman and struck him out on three pitches.

“[Teel] hit two mistakes and all of sudden he’s got seven RBIs,” Kay said. “Early in the game we didn’t execute well against him. I decided to let Keaton go after him again with his best stuff. He made some adjustments and struck him out.”

After Siomkin mowed down the side in the top of the seventh, the Lions had an opportunity for a walk-off against the only team that has beaten them in the past 32 days.

Nico Darras led off the final frame with a double to left field before being subbed out for pinch-runner Johnson. Bily moved Johnson to third base with a well-placed sacrifice bunt. Ponder, the Lions’ No. 6 hitter, walked to the plate with one out and looked over to the third base line, where Kay gave him the signal to lay down the biggest bunt of the season.

“Coach Kay is known to do some crazy things, so I wasn’t too surprised when he called for the bunt,” Ponder said. “I was ready to seize the moment. We were able to get a guy in position to score and I knew it was my turn to come up big and do my job.”

Kay had no doubts in the senior's ability to come through.

“I wanted to do it at some point in the game and Joey is the perfect guy to have at the plate,” Kay said. “If you’re going to do a suicide squeeze at any time, you’ve got to have faith in your guy at the plate, so I decided it was the time to go for it.”

Ponder squared up once relief pitcher Ryan Barr began his delivery, and was able to make sound contact and send the ball slowly rolling onto the infield grass toward the mound as Johnson dashed in from third base.

“I got a bit of a late jump and I saw the pitcher going for the ball so I knew it was going to be a close play,” Johnson said. “I ran as hard as I could, put my head down and slid.”

Barr made an athletic play to pounce on the ball and quickly flipped it to catcher Jeremy Martinez. But Johnson beat the tag and quickly found himself swarmed by teammates behind home plate. The Lions, winners of 12 in a row, now own a share of first place in the Trinity League.

“We really showed some resiliency by battling back,” Kay said. “The guys hung their heads for a second but they continued to compete and refused to give up against a very good Mater Dei team. I tell the guys to live for the moment and that’s what they did tonight.”

JSerra and Mater Dei conclude their season series at Mater Dei High on Saturday, with the winner grabbing sole possession of the Trinity’s top spot. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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