Serra baseball off to frustrating 0-2 start in West Catholic Athletic League play

But the Padres are certainly learning the hard way about the rigors of WCAL play. Serra was held to just two hits in a 1-0 shutout loss to St. Francis Tuesday. Friday, the Padres got their offense going, scoring seven runs on 13 hits and taking advantage of three Mitty errors.

Unfortunately for the Padres, they didn’t get much pitching early on and the their defense was shaky, committing four errors which led directly to a 10-7 Monarchs’ victory.

“We have to be able to execute in all three phases of the game,” Houle said. “We’ve been playing great defensively, up to this point. That was our first hiccup defensively this year.”

And the errors caused some of the pitching problems because Serra starting pitcher Sam Kretsch struggled to get outs early on. Through three-plus innings, first Kretsch, and then Thomas Egbert, got to two strikes on nine Mitty hitters.

Seven of those batters reached base. Add in four errors in the first four innings, which led to six of the 10 runs being unearned and Serra (0-2 WCAL, 7-4 overall) was facing an uphill battle.

The struggles started early for the Padres as Mitty (1-1, 6-1) scored twice in the first inning. Jarren Advincula walked on a 3-2 count to lead off the game and came around to score on a Matteo Blandino double to the right-center field gap.

It was the first of five RBIs on the day for Blandino.

An error on the Serra shortstop kept the inning going for the Monarchs, who cashed in again on an Alijah Ramos sacrifice fly to center.

Mitty added two more runs in the second inning. Antonio Cabrera endured a seven-pitch battle, fouling off four pitches with two strikes before being hit with the eighth pitch of the at-bat. Luka Brocilo followed and, with Cabrera on the move, sliced a single to shallow center, with Cabrera moving to third on the hit.

He would come home on a Ben Kim sacrifice bunt and Brocilo would score on a two-out single by Advincula.

Serra responded with four runs in the bottom of the second to tie the game. Ben Cleary, Tyler Peruzzaro and Will Kinney all singled to load the bases.

Lucas Schumaker followed and squibbed a soft comebacker to Mitty starting pitcher Luka Pintar. But his throw home pulled the catcher off the plate and Cleary was called safe for the Padres’ first run of the game.

A strikeout and flyout to right and the Monarchs were nearly out of the inning, but leadoff hitter Henry White kept the rally going by drawing a walk on a full count to drive in Peruazzo to cut the Mitty lead to 4-2. Will Bowen came up and hit a grounder to third that went under the third baseman’s glove for an error, enabling both Kinney and Schumaker to score to tie the game at 4 apiece.

The rally seemed to put a pep in the Padres step as Kretsch worked a fairly clean third inning. Serra kept the momentum in its dugout as the Padres took their only lead of the game in the bottom of the third. Cleary led off the inning with an infield hit and came all the way around to score on a Peruazzo double to the wall in left field.

In the top of the fourth, however, the wheels came off for Serra as the Monarchs sent 11 batters to the plate while scoring six runs. Kretsch gave up a lead-off single to start the inning and his day was done. Egbert came in and could not pick up his starter. Two walks, two errors and a hit batter drove in a pair of runs for the Monarchs. Following a lengthy mound visit from Houle, Blandino stepped to the plate and, with the bases loaded jumped on the first pitch he saw, sending the ball over the right-field fence for a grand slam and a 10-5 lead.

Garrett Carlson came in to get the final two outs of the inning and proceeded to pitch the final three innings without allowing a hit.

“We need guys who can come in and get outs,” Houle said.

Serra, to its credit, kept battling. The Padres scored a run in the sixth on a Bowen double to drive in Kai Laxa, who had doubled two batters earlier. The Padres added another run in the seventh on a Laxa infield hit.

“We played great earlier in the year. We have to get to playing the way we did then,” Houle said. “They’re going to get frustrated when things aren’t going their way. That’s our job as coaches to lead them through it.”