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Sage lets one slip away

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The food truck pulled up an hour before the first pitch at Sage Hill School. The cook started up the grill right away inside the truck on Friday.

St. Margaret’s bats never caught on fire for the first six innings, and pitcher Brett Super was the reason why. The burger truck parked near the field was about to name a menu item after Super. The “Super Burger” sounded about right after the freshman right-hander went into the seventh with a no-hitter.

In the seventh, Super lost the no-hitter and then the game. The Tartans rallied for three runs on three hits in the top of the seventh to pull out a 3-2 victory.

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St. Margaret’s paid the Lightning in a little payback, after Sage Hill scored four runs in the top of the seventh to win, 4-2, at St. Margaret’s on Tuesday. The programs split the key two-game Academy League series.

Sage Hill (6-3, 1-1 in league) was one out away from sweeping the Tartans (6-2, 1-1), ranked No. 7 in the CIF Southern Section Division 6 poll.

“We sure did,” Sage Hill Coach Dominic Campeau said of letting the game get away in the seventh. “It happened pretty fast.”

The seventh began with Super walking the leadoff hitter, then allowing the next batter to single to right field, the first hit he gave up.

Super got some much needed defensive help when Timothy Maguire tried to bunt over the runners. Catcher Tobias Bush helped turn a double play after he picked up the ball near the plate. He fired to third base for the force out, and third baseman Harrison Rhee threw to first baseman Conner Bock for the second out.

With a runner on second base, Super jumped on Daniel Horgan, his first two pitches went for strikes. Four pitches later, Horgan singled to right field, bringing home the runner from second to tie the game at 1-1.

Super hit the next batter, putting runners on second and first base. On his 102nd pitch, Andre Antone singled down the right-field line to put St. Margaret’s up, 2-1.

“I went there to actually take him out [before], but he’s like, ‘You know what coach? I want to finish this.’ I kind of like that. The kid’s young and he’s got attitude,” Campeau said of Super. “[The Tartans] battled. They started hitting the ball to the right side, and next thing you know they caught up.”

Super, who struck out three and walked two, exited after 6 2/3 innings. The Tartans, with runners on the corners, managed to get another run across on a double steal.

The third run proved to be the difference. If Sage Hill keeps it at a one-run deficit, the game goes into extra innings after it scored once in the bottom half of the seventh.

Sage Hill still had a chance. The team was down to its final out, with runners on second and first base against Avery Cantor, who started the seventh in relief. He replaced starter Kyle Hermann, who went six strong innings, giving up four hits, the single by Bock in the third inning put Sage Hill up, 1-0.

Cantor earned the save, closing the door on the Lightning. He got the batter, whom the Tartans pitched around in the previous two at-bats, before walking him each time, to pop up to the shortstop in shallow left-center field.

“I’m new to this here, but I know that there’s a history between the two schools. We’re big rivals,” Campeau said. “I told the guys, ‘I know you hate losing to them, but there are some positives.’ There’s ways we could have won this game before all this happened [in the seventh]. We didn’t run the bases very smart. We got picked [off at second base] with our big boys hitting [with two outs in the fifth]. After that, we missed a few signs today at pretty important times. Three times we didn’t recognize signs.”

Academy League

St. Margaret’s 3, Sage Hill 2

SCORE BY INNINGS

SM 000 000 3 – 3, 3, 1

SH 001 000 1 – 1, 5, 1

Hermann, Cantor (7) and Bradley; Super, Ochi (7) and Bush. W – Hermann. L – Super. Sv – Cantor. 2B – Bush (SH).

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