PASADENA — With raindrops falling at a steady pace, St. Francis High pitchers nearly kept walking batters at the same rate.
It got so bad that St. Francis Coach Brian Esquival stopped counting the amount of walks, as his pitchers struggled to find and hit the strike zone.
Three St. Francis hurlers combined to walk 11 on Friday night in a 10-5 Mission League loss to visiting Loyola at Jackie Robinson Field.
To put an exclamation point on the loss, five of those walks turned into runs and allowed Loyola (13-12-1, 4-4 in league) to sweep the two-game season series against St. Francis (15-11, 5-5).
Esquival issued a warning to his pitching staff, which will next face Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in a two-game set. Notre Dame captured the CIF Southern Section Division II championship last season.
“We are playing halfway decent in terms of hitting and defense,” said Esquival, whose team suffered an 8-3 loss to Loyola on Tuesday. “We need to start competing on the mound now.
“I stopped counting [the walks] at seven. There’s been a lot of walks the last three or four games. I can’t explain it.”
St. Francis grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an infield single by designated hitter Mark Saatzer, but then things quickly turned sour for the Golden Knights.
St. Francis starting pitcher Ethan Bramschreiber (2-3) lost control in the second inning after retiring the side easily in the first. Bramschreiber, a right-hander, walked four in the second, with two of those translating into runs by the patient Cubs.
Loyola shortstop AJ Labruna then cleared the bases with a three-run double to make it 5-1.
“I think a lot of this is mental,” Esquival said. “These are 16-, 17- and 18-year olds out there. It’s going to be a matter of trusting what they have, trusting their defense and giving the team a chance to win.”
The Golden Knights, who have lost three games in a row, cut Loyola’s lead to 6-2 on a run-scoring single by AJ Berglund in the third inning. St. Francis then closed to within 6-4 on run-scoring singles by Saatzer and James Bonds in the fifth against Loyola starting pitcher Tony Rosado (5-2).
However, Loyola pushed across four runs in the sixth to make it 10-4. In that span, a pair of Loyola batters walked and scored.
St. Francis got a RBI double from Jefferson Nolan to close out the scoring. The Golden Knights finished with 11 hits, including three by Saatzer and two apiece from Berglund and Bonds, in a contest that featured rain in the early innings.
