1976 Baseball: Favorites’ Stumbles Open Door for Madison

The numbers 1, 2, 4, and 5 seeds were eliminated in the first round of the San Diego Section playoffs.

Only third-ranked Hoover survived and the Cardinals were ousted in the quarterfinals.

That left the door open for No. 6 seed Madison, which edged No. 12 Crawford, 1-0, for the championship.

Probably most disappointed was Clairemont and coach Ernie Beck, whose top-seed Chieftains took a loss to 16th-ranked Torrey Pines, a second-year school with a 12-10 record from the nascent Coast League.

LEGENDARY COACH

Beck held the County record of 454 victories when he retired after winning his first San Diego Section title in 1984 .

Beck also holds the unique distinction of championships in two of the state’s CIF sections. He coached second-year, no-seniors Clairemont to the Southern Section Class AA title in 1960, the last year of San Diego teams’ participation before the first season of the San Diego Section in 1960-61.

5/11/76

Three league leaders met defeat and two league leaders moved closer to clinching championships.

—The San Diego Union No. 1-ranked Hoover was beaten by Crawford right-hander Curtis Burkhead for the second time, 4-1.

—Tim Muser limited Western League No. 1 Madison to four hits as Clairemont scored a 3-2 victory.

—Metropolitan League leader Mar Vista lost a five-run lead and was defeated by Hilltop, 6-5, moving the Lancers to a half-game lead over the Mariners in the Metropolitan League.

—La Jolla took a two-game lead with three to play in the Coast League, 3-2, in eight innings over Mission Bay.

—Grossmont didn’t play but picked up a half game in the Grossmont League and led by three games with three to play.

5/12/76

Writer Henry Wesch compared Montgomery’s Fermin Singson to the fast-working San Diego Padre Randy Jones when Singson needed just minutes more than an hour to blank Hilltop, 2-0, and gain a tie with Mar Vista (9-3) for first in the Metropolitan League.

Singson gave up three singles and raised his record to 9-3.

Mar Vista stayed apace the Aztecs with a 13-3 win over Chula Vista.

—Patrick Henry scored two runs in the ninth inning to edge St. Augustine, 4-2, in the makeup of a rained-out contest.

—Don Slater’s seventh-inning squeeze bunt scored Scott Brazil and Bonita Vista walked off with a 1-0 victory over Sweetwater.

5/13/76

Steve Dergonc drove in seven runs with a grand slam home run batting lefthanded and three-run homer batting righthanded and Madison won a Western League rout over visiting University, 16-3.

5/14/76

Lee Guetterman’s two-run home run and three-hit pitching resulted in a 7-0 Avocado League victory by Oceanside over Fallbrook that knocked the Warriors out of first place, a game behind Carlsbad, 5-0 winner against San Marcos.

5/17/76

El Capitan scored a run in the top of the ninth inning to defeat Grossmont, 6-5, in a game interrupted by a bench-clearing beef, which saw eight players ejected, four from each team.

5/18/76

Patrick Henry stayed alive in the Eastern League by overcoming a 6-1 lead with six runs in the bottom of the seventh inning, shocking Morse, 7-6, to remain one game behind Hoover with one to play.

–La Jolla clinched the Coast League title with a 3-2 victory at San Dieguito.

5/19/76

Clairemont and Patrick Henry earned ties for the Western and Eastern League championships, respectively.

The Chieftains, given an opportunity when Kearny edged Madison, 2-1, rallied for four runs in the seventh inning to defeat San Diego, 5-2.

Coach Ernie Beck’s team also was given the league’s No. 1 seed in the playoffs after defeating league leader Madison twice during the regular season.

—Patrick Henry, aided by three errors, rallied for seven runs in the sixth inning to top Hoover, 10-8, but the Cardinals became the Eastern’s top seed in the playoffs after a vote of league representatives following the game.

5/21/76

Championship of the Lions Baseball Tournament, played on April 15, was decided 36 days later, when Kearny’s Bart Bass pitched a 5-0 victory over Clairemont for the Lions 3-A crown.

Bass was working on a one-hit, 11-0 lead when play was halted after a rainstorm hit Smith Field on the San Diego State campus in the fourth inning on April 15.

Five innings were required for the contest to be considered official.

Bosses agreed to replay the final in toto following the last regular-season game.

STANDINGS

AVOCADO LEAGUE

                        LEAGUE                                                                                          OVERALL

EASTERN LEAGUE

                       LEAGUE                                                                                           OVERALL

WESTERN LEAGUE

                       LEAGUE                                                                                     OVERALL

OTHER LEAGUE FINAL STANDINGS AND FINAL OVERALL RECORDS NOT PUBLISHED.

5/24/76

2-A PLAYOFFS

PLAY-IN ROUND

Torrey Pines 4, @Oceanside (15-7) 3.

Bonita Vista 17, @Santana (12-11) 14.

Scott Brazil had three hits, including a three-run home run, drove in seven runs, and then picked up the victory with two shutout innings in relief after the Barons, trailing, 9-0, in the first inning and 14-12 in the top of the seventh, pulled out the victory.

Tom Tussell was four for five, doubled twice, and drove in four runs, and Dan Meza hit a 340-foot home run for the Sultans.

5/25/76

FIRST ROUND

Patrick Henry 8, @Fallbrook (17-6) 7.

Two-run home runs by Patriots Dave Miller, Mike Messina, and Jim Minerd were enough to offset John Christensen’s 4 for 4 that included a two run homer and run-scoring double.

Montgomery 1, @No. 5 La Jolla (20-4) 0.

Joe Williams’ fourth-inning home run backed Felmir Singson’s 10-strikeout, three-hit pitching.

Torrey Pines 3, @No. 1 Clairemont (18-7) 1.

John Kentera’s three hits and Steve Summers’ four-hit pitching marked the second-year Falcons’ seventh straight win and a stunning playoff loss for the top-seeded Chieftains.

No. 9 Bonita Vista 4, @No. 2 Carlsbad (22-4) 1.

Scott Brazil’s two-run single in the fifth inning provided the winning runs and Brazil’s three-hit pitching shut down the Lancers, whose run was on Brazil’s first-inning balk.

Crawford 5, @No. 4 Grossmont (15-8) 2.

The Colts moved on after Brent Wittmayers’ grand slam home run in the fifth inning.

Kearny (16-9) 3, @No. 3 Hoover 4.

Helix 6, @Mar Vista (16-7) 3.

Mission Bay (14-9) 3, @Madison 6.

Paul Wirkus’ three-run homer and Raymond Lane’s pitching advanced the Warhawks.

1-A CHAMPIONSHIP

Christian (12-6) 10, Francis Parker (11-7) 9, @El Capitan.

The Patriots stole nine bases and built a 10-3 lead, but five bases on balls, two errors, and a hit batsmen had them hanging on to a one-run lead after the Lancers crossed home plate with six runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Patriots pitcher Steve Stockwell weathered the baseball version of a Category Level 4 hurricane, striking out Patriots freshman John Mansfield for the final out with the bases loaded and the ball-strike count 3-2.

QUARTERFINALS

5/26/76

Torrey Pines 12, Patrick Henry (15-9) 3.

The Falcons continued to impress as former San Diego State football great Craig Scoggins’ club rode with first baseman John Kentera, who singled, doubled and tripled, scored three runs and knocked in a run. Paul Salgado and Bryan Bowen drove in three runs apiece.

Crawford 4, Montgomery (18-8) 1.

Leading, 2-1, Crawford scored four times in the sixth inning. Greg Smith and Ken Vasquez combined to hold the Aztecs to seven hits and Brett Wittmayer singled in two runs and scored on a wild pitch.

Helix 4, @No. 3 Hoover (20-6) 3, (8), @Southwestern College.

Chris Myers scored on Larry Fixen’s squeeze bunt in the eighth inning and the Highlanders ushered out the favored Cardinals.

Madison 12, Bonita Vista (18-7) 7.

Brent Hillenga and Steve Derganc hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning and the Warhawks built a 6-1 lead after three innings against last year’s playoff runner-up.

5/28/76

SEMIFINALS

Madison 6, Helix (16-11) 3, @University of San Diego.

Raymond Lane (9-1) survived a three-run first inning and struck out 11 for the complete-game win.

The Warhawks were hitless for the first four innings against Al Knerr, who gave up a single to Lane in the fifth inning after a leadoff walk to John Nelson.

Dennis Brickel followed a squeeze play that scored Nelson with a triple that tied the score at 3-3.  Another squeeze, by Scott Fowler scored Brickel.

I had a sore back in practice yesterday and I didn’t think I would start,” said Lane, “but coach (Bob Roeder) likes to keep the rotation and he said I’d have to suck it up and go today.”

Crawford 5, Torrey Pines (15-11) 1, @Mesa College.

CHAMPIONSHIP

5/29/76

Madison (21-6) 1, Crawford (17-10) 0, @San Diego State.

“We’re the first Madison team that didn’t choke,” shouted centerfielder John Nelson.

“We’ve never had a team get past the second round before,” said coach Bob Roeder, “but this team never got down.”

Scott Fowler blooped a single down the leftfield line to score Dennis Brickel in the bottom of the sixth inning for the game’s only score.

The Colts, who had runners in scoring position in the first, fifth and sixth innings, could not get to Warhawks starter Rich Leahy, who worked out of trouble each time and gave up three hits.

The Colts’ Mike Martinez and Ken Vasquez almost matched Leahy’s gem and the Colts, seeded 12^th at the start of the postseason, drew praise from coach Jerry Tooze.

“Not many thought we’d make it (this far), but I did and you couldn’t ask for a much better game than we played,” said Tooze.

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