PASADENA — The Crespi High baseball team is tough enough to beat on its own.
Factor in the free bases and extra outs that St. Francis donated to the Celts in the Golden Knights’ Mission League opener on Tuesday at Jackie Robinson Field and it’s an unwinnable battle.
Crespi, ranked No.1 in CIF Southern Section Division II, scored four runs in each of the first two innings and three more in the third to pull away early for a 14-3 victory.
“It just didn’t seem like we were ready to go, it was just one of those days,” St. Francis Coach Brian Esquival said. “We just need to get back to work and try to fix something and see if we can get ready to compete and get after it on Friday against these guys.”
Golden Knights starting pitcher AJ Berglund (two for four) got off to a rough start, hitting Crespi’s leadoff batter and walking the next two.
But after Berglund struck out the next batter, St. Francis (6-3) had a chance to escape the inning unhurt when Crespi’s Jack Colick bounced a tailor-made double-play ball between first and second base.
St. Francis’ second baseman couldn’t get the ball out of his glove in time to make a throw to second, going to first instead and allowing Michael Hubbard to score to make it 1-0.
The major damage was done over the remainder of the inning, which saw Berglund dole out two more walks, the second of which scored a run, and allow a two-run single to Alex Gonzalez, the last batter he would face.
“I don’t know if it’s the fact that you’re playing Crespi, but you just can’t give them any help,” Esquival said. “You need to play a near-perfect game.”
In the second inning, Crespi (9-2, 2-1 in league) loaded the bases on a single and two balls on the infield that the Golden Knights couldn’t come up with cleanly before Colick drove in two more runs on a single up the middle.
With runners at first and third, Colick made a break for second during the next at bat and another run scored on a double steal.
In the third inning, Jake Jacobsen hit a three-run home run following a hit batter and a walk to make it 11-0.
St. Francis scored all three of its runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Ethan Bramschreiber (two for four) singled, David Hubinger walked and Andrew Yu singled to load the bases with no outs and Bramschreiber and Hubinger scored on a one-out single by Brady Markel. Yu later scored on an error on a pickoff attempt.
