4/10/19 Baseball: Mar Vista 5, Mater Dei Catholic 4

April 11, 2019

KUSI Newsroom,

Posted: April 11, 2019

Updated: 1:26 PM

League rivals, Mater Dei Catholic and Mar Vista battled it out on the diamond, trying to gain some separation in the Metro South Bay league standings, with the Mariners coming out on top, 5-4, scoring 3 times in the bottom of the 7th to walk it off.

Mar Vista got an outstanding game from Diego Garza. The Junior 3rd baseman finished the day going 3-for-4 with 3 singles and 3 Runs Batted In. Sophomore 1st baseman, Josh Barbato went 2-for-3 with a run scored.

Crusaders Catcher, and San Diego State commit, Ildephonso “Poncho” Ruiz had a nice day at the plate for Mater Dei Catholic. He went 2-for-4 with a single, a double and 3 RBI. He also threw out a runner attempting to steal 2nd base.

With the score 2-1 in the top of the 6th inning, in favor of Mar Vista, Mater Dei Catholic scored 3 times on a sacrifice fly by 1st baseman, Robert Carrillo, an RBI single by Joe Wetter, and a second sacrifice fly by Pitcher, Rocco Gurrolla. That made it 4-2 Crusaders going into the final inning.

The Mariners looked finished but a couple of fielding blunders gave Mar Vista the opportunity the were looking for. Cesar Luna got a base-on-balls, Chris Pardinas singled up the middle, a ball that should’ve been grounded considering the speed it traveled through the infield, and Isaac Guerrero reached base on a throwing error. Guerrero grounded it to 1st base, but Carrillo threw wildly to 2nd base and instead of a double play, it loaded the bases.

A sacrifice fly by Barbato and an RBI single by Garza tied it up at 4. With 2 outs and the winning run at 3rd base, James Longworth hit a dribbler about 5 feet in front of home plate. Ruiz picked it up and fired towards 1st base, but the ball hit Longworth and Brandon Cosio crossed the plate to give the Mariners the walk-off win.

Mar Vista goes to 9-8 on the season, more importantly, they have a 2-1 league record, putting them in sole possession of 2nd place.

Mater Dei Catholic goes to 8-10 on the season, 1-3 in league play. They will host the Mariners again on Friday.