MARCH MADNESS AT THE RECK!
Luna’s double sends Owls to victory

By Mark Anderson

For those who thought March Madness was about basketball, they were not at the game between Cal Poly and Rice at Reckling Field on Friday. Tyler Henley summed it up well when he said, “It was a hard-fought game. Whoever was going to win that game was going to be extremely happy because of how hard they fought, and whoever lost was going to be really upset because of how hard they fought.”

This game had all the elements of March Madness. It had players making great plays. It had coaches getting upset with calls. It had all the elements of two teams fighting it out hard for the win at the buzzer, as witnessed by squeeze plays (2 in the same game by the same team), some arguing over calls, pitchers getting into jams, you fill in the blank, this game had it.

For instance, Cal Poly loaded the bases with two outs against Ryan Berry. But Smith ended up striking out to end the threat. Rice then countered that threat by scoring a run in the second as Danny Lehmann scored on Jared Gayhart’s sacrifice fly to put the Owls up, 1-0.

Rice would extend that lead to 2-0 in the fourth when Savery led off with aq single but was erased on a fielder’s choice as Luna was safe at first on the double play attempt. Lehmann grounded out to short, but Luna advanced on the throw to second. Gayhart followed with an RBI single that scored Luna.

In the fifth, Jess Buenger led off with a triple to right-center, and Brian Friday followed that with an RBI single to center. After Friday stole second base, Henley singled up the middle to score Friday and give the Owls a seemingly safe 4-0 lead, with Ryan Berry cruising along at that point.

Not so fast there, pilgrim.

Beginning with the top of the 6th, the Mustangs began to climb back in the game. During Brent Morel’s at-bat, he swung and missed at a curve from Berry—and dislocated his shoulder in the process. Rick Morel just happened to be standing beside me, and he explained that Brent had been out two weeks because of that shoulder. Well, Brent, much to the surprise of many, didn’t come out of the game, and then sent a Ryan Berry fastball over the left field wall for the Mustangs first run.

Berry got out of the inning without any further damage, but his night was finished. When asked about Berry’s performance after the game, Coach Graham said, “Well, Ryan really wasn’t on, but he had enough moxy to pitch a good ball game anyway.” Scott Longeran came on in the seventh. Longeran, who was spectacular last weekend, was greeted rudely with three hits—one of them being a two-run homer by Desme, making the score 4-3.

But then in the top of the eighth, Cal Poly rallied to give the Mustangs the lead. Kepner singled to right, and Pezet was hit by a pitch. When Thomas laid down a sacrifice, Tacker’s throwing error opened the floodgates as Kepner scored. Melker flied out to right on a spectacular catch by Gayhart. Smith then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to score Pezet. Schafer tripled to right to score both Smith and Thomas. That would be all the Mustangs would get in the eighth, but it put them ahead by a score of 7-4.

But the Owls answered in the bottom of the eighth as Henley was hit by a pitch. Savery struck out and Luna grounded to second, sending Henley to second and bringing up Lehmann, who doubled and drove in Henley. Dodson singled up the middle to score Lehmann and make the score 7-6.

Cal Poly replied with a run of their own in the ninth. With Kyle Gunderson pitching, Kepner drew a walk and the ire of the Rice bench, particularly Coach Pierce, who, after getting tossed, gave the umpires quite an earful. With Yoder running for Kepler, he took second on a wild pitch and third on a steal. With Thomas at the plate with one out, Cal Poly elected to go with another suicide squeeze—and scored as it was perfectly executed to give the Mustangs an 8-6 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Derek Myers led off the top of the ninth against hard-throwing Evan Reed by drawing a walk. Brian Friday followed with a single to center. Tyler Henley then stepped to the plate and delivered an RBI single to the right side, bringing Rice within a run and putting the tying run on third. Joe Savery then stepped up. What was Joe thinking as he stepped up? “Don’t strike out,” he said after the ballgame, with a smile on his face and his nephew in his arms. Joe didn’t strike out—he delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly to score Friday from third. That brought up Aaron Luna, who doubled to right, and brought in Henley with the winning run.

Saturday’s 2:00 game features Matt Langwell starting for the Owls against the Mustangs.

Note: I will fill in pictures on Sunday.