Baseball: First loss of season for No. 1 Mater Dei
March 27th, 2009, 10:42 pm · 34 Comments · posted by ocvarsity
Trayce Thompson hit two home runs and Robert Kelly pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts as Santa Margarita knocked off Mater Dei, 4-2, on Friday night in a Trinity League game at Mater Dei.
The Monarchs entered the game undefeated and ranked No. 1 this week in the county and the state.
The victory moves the unranked Eagles (7-3, 3-0) into sole possession of first in the Trinity League. Mater Dei dropped to 9-1 overall, 2-1 in league.
Thompson's two homers, his third and fourth of the season, came off Monarchs ace Aaron Northcraft.
Thompson, who is hitting .478 this season, connected for a solo home run in the first and added a two-run homer in the fourth, which put the Eagles ahead, 4-0.
Nick Wagner also hit a solo homer in the first for Santa Margarita.
Northcraft entered the game 3-0 with an ERA of 0.66.
The Monarchs collected eight hits and a walk against Kelly (4-0), but the senior right-hander allowed just two runs in the bottom of the fourth.
The Eagles have won four in a row. Their losses this season have been to No. 8 Aliso Niguel (1-0), No. 4 Marina (6-3) and Villa Park (8-1).
34 Comments
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Great job Trayce! UCLA must be feeling pretty good right now about signing Thompson for next year. Go Eagles!!!!!
mater dei had 5 errors and only lost by 2.. They will be fine. One shake up early in the year. no worries.Eagles only had 4 hits as well..
5 errors and only lost by two? they will be fine? ... sounds like the bats went cold too ... and if they are soooooooooooooooooooo good then why didnt they find a way to win? ... Great teams always find a when to win when they arent hitting or fielding ... but wait in baseball you need both to do that ...
Thank your lord jesus christ for that wake up call mater dei ... your simply not that good
The 5 Errors had nothing to do with the three HR's the Eagles hit off Northcraft! Only one of the 4 runs were unearned! Stop making excuses for the loss and give SM some credit they out pitched, out hit and out played MD in the field!
SM doesnt deserve any credit in this victory.. MD beat themselves. With the win by the eagles thats all you get from them they wont be any better then what you saw on friday night. Mater dei has way more than what they showed. Guarntee MD takes 2 out of 3 from SM this year..
The simple fact of the matter is that the best team on the field won. Period. Say what you will, but SM outplayed MD on the field.
SM beat MD!!!!! accept it you sore losing MD fans!!!!!!! we beat you fair and square! and if a team had 5 errors then obviously you arent as good as they say! and we got our runs of HOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the runs had nothing to do with the errors!
Give me a brake Eagle Fans. It will take more than one win against us to prove you are worthy. It was hardly a lopsided loss. We have the talent to make a long run into the CIF playoffs and you have a history of failure! Your weakness will again be your coaching.
SM unranked is exactly where they should be. One win against a team that had 5 errors and everyone is crowning them king. It is still a long season. As usual, the Eagles will self distruct and MD will continue their winning tradition.
Eagle seems to be flying a bit too high. We at MD realize it is a long season. We will continue to win and you will continue to realize that your team is mediocre.
Md 2010 - If Mater Dei has way more than what they showed, last night would have been an opportune time to show it!
If Mater Dei had played a perfect game in the field, (which has rarely happen according to the box scores) Santa Margarita wins 3 -2.
Your Guarantee is meaningless! Just typical Mater Dei hype!
Mater Dei did play poorly and SM played their game of the year. They won, no doubt, credit is given. for that game. Every team is capable of playin poorly, I mean look at SM losing to Villa Park? Give me a break. There are too many good teams, even O Lu who started 0-2 is capable of beating anyone. The trinity league will be too tough for SM and their lack of pitching depth. when you have to roll out a pitcher for almost 120 pitches, that is a weakness in the bullpen. Kelly pitched a great game. Mater Dei's starting right fielder also was hurt in the opening inning after leading off the game with a single. Just kind of set the tone. The monarchs will be back. No doubt and will take the beastly trinity league
the 5 errors had NOTHING to do with mater dei losing. MD had TEN k's! and their pitching made mistakes with a couple of OC's best hitters at the plate.... and if you really want to mention the errors then it is safe to say that they came as a result of RUNNERS GETTING ON BASE (Northcraft had a few errors himself)
...not making any guarentees but clearly SM was the better team last night and will continue to be the better team if their pitching and hitting stays up to par.
....like i said. playing poorly had nothing to do with their loss (MD had 8 hits... poor?), kelly just out-pitched the northcraft when he was under pressure.
losing 8-1 against villa park with a mere 2 hits.... that is playing poorly.
there's the break you were asking for.
amen jon doe.
REalistically, MD has better depth and overall talent. So when it comes to losing a game here or there it will happen. But be creful when you talk about coaching. If SM is not deep then why is MD throwing hittable pitches to SM's only good hitters. Seems like MD might have been out coached in this one. Also a lot of bickering at the umps from MD side. SM coaches seemed to have game under control to me. Eventually though the talent for MD is too tough for the trinity league.
alright, tough game for the monarchs, outstanding hitting by the eagles...or should i say trayce and one hit by wagner. kelly pitched a great game, nobody could say he didnt. you people care too much, its highschool baseball, anything can happen in any game of baseball, league play doesnt matter the real teams win when it counts, MD has shown they can win from behind, and give up big errors, just ask canyon. congrats to the eagles, but trayce or wagner can drop two to three bombs a game or pitch kelly every game so they need to get their act together
SM was the best team last night and leave it at that. Yes, SM deserve some credit. MD is not a team that will fold because they lost one game. They have too much talent and will definately beat SM 2 out of three and win the Trinity League. Last year they lost to Saint John Boscoe but still advanced to the CIF simi finals. It's a long season and MD will be fine.
Neutral observer here & was at the game last night (I love HS baseball) & it was an exciting & a well played (at least by SM) game. MD seems to have some fielding issues. Mishandled two bunt plays for errors. Remember everyone, it is only one game & it is early in the league season. Nice win for SM & a loss that, if worked correctly by the MD coaches, could work to their favor in terms of coming back down to earth & refocusing the Monarchs.
Baseball is all about matchups & last night Kelly simply outpitched Northcraft.
Question for "play the game" - Northcraft also threw a complete game & had to throw near or over 110 pitches as well. Does this mean MD has no pitching depth?
I think we know the answer to that & I was just pointing out a stupid comment. You are correct in that MD will not fold & will be back.
As far as coaching - SM looks just fine & if their kids can play a near flawless game (at least defensively) in a big league game @ MD at night then their coaching is very solid. Rarely have I seen HS baseball teams play great defensive games but SM looked very good.
I agree with "Mater Dei Rules!" about pitching to SM's better hitters if they don't need too. Is that poor coaching on MD's part?
Anyway, I hope to catch a few more MD games as well as seeing how SM handles this early success.
Good luck to all Trinity league teams.
Nice to see some rationality (thanks OCobserver). This column doesn't need to be Trash Central, keep some objectivity. We (SM) realize one game does not make a season, but what an excellent start after several poor showings in Trinity. SM was underestimated and MD wasn't going to go undefeated in this hot bed of OC baseball. It is a long season and MD has a track record, SM doesn't. Northcraft is awesome, Kelly completely underrated. Kelly's approach on the mound is as good as it gets, period, AND he has great stuff. Gotta love the grit. There are good things going on at SM, they have spunk and play solid defense. Congratulations on an excellent early season win, big for us. As fans saw that were treated to a good HS baseball game last night the Eagles are going to do one thing for sure this season...have some fun. Go Eagles!
Look, SM played a great game last night. They were the better team. Mater Dei should just accept this loss. Even though the word "loss" isn't in Mater Dei's dictionary, they need to own up to it. These two teams will be the ones to fight it out for the Trinity League Title. Looking forward to a great season.
Way to much analysis on this one. MD is the better team, no doubt. We will get over this one and like always will improve throughout the season. SM will prove that by the end of the season they were really just a flash in the pan.
MD acually does have the word "loss" in their dictionary. We also have the word "loser" in it as well and it certainly looks allot like the SM baseball program.
Way to go Eagles !!!! Keep soaring high !!! Great game Robert !!!
Fans generally think that "their' team is better than they really are. Mater Dei has great tradition and a dedicated fan base. Team success is based on what happens on the field not what is written by fans and haters on blogs. SM won the game and deserves credit today regardless of what happens tomorrow. MD may win every game they play from here on out but it won't change what happened on Saturday night. Congratulations to SM.
Mater Dei isnt Good! End of story! The team looked like little girls trying to make contact off Kelly. SM has you monarchs in the palm of r hands and now the next time we meet, we will crush you!
MD is not that great. they r good. not great. they have faced 2 good pitchers this year...they r 1-1 and their are a hand full of pitchers from other leagues like sunset that can breez through their line up
Way to much written on one game. Let's all wait to see what happens but if tradition, talent and coaching have anything to say about the direction of a team, then you have to tip your hat to Mater Dei. This was a wake up call to them. I do have to say congrats to SM as well! It's good to see the Trinity League loaded again with tremedous D1 talent.
Time to move on! SM now has to turn their attention to a really good Orange Lutheran team on Wed and a J Serra team ready to prove they are ready to make a run at the Trinity League as well!
I like how you guys talk about each other and then throw Villa Park in as the low-life team. Villa Park shut SM down in the first game of a double header 8 -1, and according to my eyes it was pretty good pitching or as you would say, an OFF day. The second game, SM got all there runs early, off VPs 7th pitcher in the rotation and only won that game by 2 runs. Villa park doesn't have enough hitting to stay up with the big boys of certain leagues over the long run, but they do have some pretty good pitching, look it up! Sm earned there victory and so did VP, so don't throw VP under the bus to make you feel better, VP has no fear in playing either team, and were a public school. ( VP is 3-0 so far, OH we also beat powerful Dana Point, ah another OFF-Day I guess!
Hey floeasy, Villa Park is a very good team. I do not believe it was the SM people discounting Villa Park, it was the other team mentioned in this article. The first game of the double header was a very close 2-1 game inito the 5th inning and the game got out of hand after that. We had only 2 hits that game and you are not going to win too many games scoring 1 run on 2 hits, your pitcher did a good job! I do believe our bats have heated up a bit since then. Good Luck and keep winning!
Duuuudes. What is wrong with all of you. MD wasn't going undefeated this year. It's almost impossible for any team to go undefeated in SoCal high school baseball. There is too much talent. You all are rattling sabers about absolutely nothing. Santa Margarita will be in the thick of things this year. So will MD. If anything comes out of this game, it should be that there is a ton of talent on most teams, and you better be ready to play every night, or someone will hand you your backside. Watch out for J Serra, because they have some great players. OLu will revive as well. Let's see where things stand at the end of league. The last week should have some great games, and then folks can start puffing their chests out. Those games will have more meaning.
KO - well said.
Gary M. - did your son get cut at SM? As I mentioned in an earlier post, if a team can beat MD @ MD in a big league game at night by playing a near flawless game, then their coaching is fine.
My unbiased opinion, both MD & SM will be right in the middle of their league race (I haven't seen any other Trinity league team but Servite, they seem a little down by their standards).
Lots of chatter about one game, SM vs. MD. Lots more HS Baseball ahead! Relax everybody, there's talent all over the place. Every year isn't always like this. Enjoy it while you can. May the best team end up in the Winner Circle!