St. Francis scores late, slips past Serra

Serra's ace Chuck Lofgren issued eight walks the first time the two teams met. On Friday, he took the mound and was determined not to have a repeat performance. Although he threw well - giving up four hits, walking five and striking out six in six innings of work - he was saddled with the loss as the Lancers touched him for five runs in a 5-4 win.

"The last time I didn't have my best stuff," Lofgren said. "[Friday] I did. I gave up four hits. You can't be disappointed with that against the top team in the nation."

After Serra scratched and clawed to tie the score at 4 following a three-run fourth, St. Francis scored the game-winner in the top of the sixth, capitalizing on the fourth of five Lofgren walks.

"His walks have haunted him all year," said Serra manager Pete Jensen.

St. Francis coaxed back-to-back walks to start the sixth before Lofgren struck out the next two batters looking. With Kyle Spraker at the plate, Lofgren threw a first-pitch strike. On the next pitch, Spraker went right back up the middle with it, scoring Paul Hogan from second to give the Lancers a 5-4 lead.

Jared Lansford came in to close for the Lancers, retiring all six batters he faced.

St. Francis (13-1 West Catholic Athletic League, 27-1 overall) got to Lofgren early, before he could settle into a groove. Lofgren retired the first two Lancer batters to start the game before Dan Descalso singled on the first pitch he saw. Jared Lansford followed and golfed a 1-0 pitch over the netting in left field for a 2-0 St. Francis lead.

Serra (7-7, 18-8) got one run back in the bottom of the first when Jon Finley was hit by a pitch with one out. Lofgren followed and smashed a drive to left field that hit off the netting above the fence. He probably would have had a double if Finley didn't trip going around second, forcing him to scramble back to the bag. After a popup to shortstop, Chris Armanino singled to center to drive in Finley.

St. Francis came right back with two more runs in the top of the second. Lofgren looked to on his way to an easy inning when he retired the first two batters on four pitches. But Kevin Hogan worked a walk and Steve Schields singled. Ryan Lee walked to load the bases. It appeared Serra would get out of the inning when Spraker hit a routine grounder to shortstop but the ball was booted, allowing Hogan to score. Lofgren then hit Descalso with a pitch to drive in the second run of the inning.

For the next three innings, however, Lofgren was untouchable. He retired the side in the third on 12 pitches, striking out two. In the fourth, he gave up another walk and hit another batter but got out of the inning unscathed. The fifth inning saw him strike out two more as he retired the side in order.

With Lofgren cruising through the middle innings, the Serra offense continued to pound the ball against St. Francis starting pitcher Rex Petril. The Padres were outhitting the Lancers - four to three - yet trailed 4-1.

The Padres finally got to Petril in the fourth. Armanino led off the inning with a double off the fence in right-center field, just beating the throw into second. Martin Riego De Dios followed and doubled down the left-field line to drive home Armanino. Drew Pedersen singled to put runners on the corners and ended Petril's day.

Reliever Chris Coleman came on and struck out the first batter he faced but Jimmy Parque singled to left to drive home Riego De Dios to cut the St. Francis lead to 4-3.

After a flyout, Finley was hit by a pitch to load the bases and bring Lofgren to the plate, who was relishing the situation. In two previous at-bats against Coleman, the senior lefty was 2 for 2 with two home runs. He admitted he was thinking grand slam when he came to the plate.

"You better believe it was going through my head," Lofgren said. "But I took a good approach at the plate, didn't swing at balls and helped out the team."

Lofgren ended drawing an RBI walk to tie the score at four. The Padres had a chance to get even more but a strikeout ended the inning.

Lofgren ended up being the Padres' last base runner of the game as Coleman and Lansford retired the final nine Serra batters.

Despite the loss, the Padres actually out-hit the Lancers - eight to six - and hit the ball harder. Unfortunately, most of them were right at St. Francis fielders.

"I thought we hit the ball harder than they did," Jensen said, noting that the wind shifted midway through the game. In the early innings, the wind was blowing out, which aided Lansford's first-inning homer. The wind then shifted and was blowing in from left field.

"We hit two balls to left field that would have been at least off the fence early in the game.

"The first (loss to St. Francis) was disappointing because we walked so many guys," Jensen continued. "This was a game. I thought we competed."