Santa Margarita’s Trevor Banning, left, yells in pain after catching a line drive and injuring himself trying to tag JSerra’s Jordan Marian, right, at third base during a game between JSerra vs. Santa Margarita in a Trinity League baseball game at Santa Margarita High School on Wednesday April 10, 2024. (Photo by Michael Kitada, Contributing Photographer)
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Brett Kay has coached JSerra’s baseball team for 19 seasons.
He was an All-Orange County catcher at Mater Dei, a starting catcher at Cal State Fullerton and played a few years of minor league baseball.
After JSerra beat Santa Margarita 14-12 in a Trinity League game Wednesday, Kay said: “I haven’t seen anything like that. … It was anarchy at its finest.”
The teams combined for 29 hits in the contest at Santa Margarita High School.
Santa Margarita had an 8-1 lead. JSerra scored eight runs in the fifth inning to take a 9-8 lead then stretched that to an 11-8 lead in the top of the sixth.
Santa Margarita scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth to tie it 11-11.
JSerra scored three runs in the top of the seventh for a 14-11 lead. Santa Margarita got a run in the bottom of the seventh and had the tying run on base when the game’s final out was recorded.
The seven-inning contest lasted 3 hours and 35 minutes.
JSerra and Santa Margarita are tied for second place in the Trinity League with their 5-3 league records. Orange Lutheran, playing in the National High School Invitational in North Carolina this week, is in first at 6-3.
Santa Margarita, No. 1 in the Orange County Top 25, beat No. 3 JSerra 6-0 on Tuesday. The teams play the rubber match Friday at JSerra at 4 p.m.
“We were lucky to come out on top of that one,” Kay said. “It sets up Friday with a pretty good showdown.”
Wednesday’s game was different from the last time JSerra beat Santa Margarita. That was a 1-0 JSerra win in last season’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship game.
Postgame with JSerra senior CF Dmitri Susidko who had three hits and made a running catch near the fence with the bases loaded for the third out of the 5th inning in the Lions’ 14-12 comeback win over Santa Margarita (JSerra trailed 8-1) … pic.twitter.com/c6xHIMIzl4
— Steve Fryer (@SteveFryer) April 11, 2024
Senior center fielder Dmitri Susidko had three of the Lions’ 12 hits, including two doubles, drove in two runs and scored two runs. He also had a crucial catch.
Santa Margarita had the bases loaded when the Eagles’ Gavin Spiridonoff launched a deep fly to center field. Susidko made a running catch just in front of the fence for the inning’s third out.
“Dimitri wasn’t starting today,” Kay said. “One of our players forgot his uniform. I asked my coaches and then said, ‘Alright, “D” you’re in center,’ and look at the game he had.”
Susidko said the Lions always felt they were in the game.
“When we were down 8-1 there was no sense of ‘it’s over,’” Susidko said. “We just tried to keep fighting.”
Lions shortstop Tyler Dunning had two hits, including a two-run double and a sacrifice fly. Left fielder Jordan Marian hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning that pushed the JSerra lead to 11-8.
Freshman designated hitter Ryder Fredrikson led off JSerra’s eight-run fifth inning with a single and later in the inning delivered a two-run single.
Santa Margarita third baseman Trevor Banning, batting ninth in the order, was 5 for 5 with three RBIs. Eagles designated hitter Warren Gravely had three hits of the team’s 17 hits, including a double, drove in a run and scored four runs.
Left fielder Jake Lavin had three hits. including a double and two RBIs.
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