Spears’ 3-Hitter Lends Comfort to Crespi, 4-0

Comfort to Scott Muckey is a four-run lead with his ace left-hander on the mound--especially when the mound is at Valley College.

Muckey was Valley’s coach for four years before taking a job at Crespi High last fall. He lives across the street from the college. And, as it happens, Valley is Crespi’s home field.

Muckey had all the comforts of the home dugout in a 4-0 Del Rey League win over Notre Dame on Friday. It was Crespi’s first home game after eight straight on the road.

“I’m know this place well,” Muckey said. “In fact, when I walked out here today they asked me where the sprinklers were.”

He could have pointed to the Crespi bat rack. The Celts, who came in with a .215 team batting average, sprayed seven soft hits off Notre Dame’s Tim DeGrasse (2-2).

They were enough because Notre Dame came up dry against Crespi left-hander Chris Spears. A senior, Spears pitched a three-hitter, induced 13 groundouts and faced only two batters above the minimum.

“Chris pitched with maturity and poise,” Muckey said.

No wonder: Spears (2-1) celebrated his 18th birthday Friday, becoming a legal adult.

“It’s the first time I ever pitched on my birthday,” Spears said. “This will be a great night. I’m going to dinner with my girlfriend in Marina del Rey, then to a team party.”

Crespi (7-2, 2-0 in league) is celebrating a lot lately. After finishing sixth in the Del Rey last season, the Celts are off to a fast start under Muckey.

“He’s given us the incentive to win,” Spears said. “We play every game like it’s for a championship.”

Spears attributed his own champion-like performance to his slider. “I usually throw more curveballs but coach wanted me to throw sliders,” he said. “I guess I threw about 80% sliders.”

Notre Dame batters flailed away, striking out six times and sending little hoppers to third baseman Kevin Thomas and shortstop Ken Franco. Thomas handled six chances and Franco had five.

“Chris has good breaking stuff and we’ve got a third baseman with a good arm,” Muckey said. “We try to live off that.”

Spears wasn’t pitching against a slump-ridden team, either. Notre Dame pounded out 27 hits and 20 runs in its first two league games, a 9-2 win over Alemany and an 11-11 tie with Bosco Tech.

Singles by Matt Marca, Matt McElreath and Jeff Antoon were all the Knights (4-3-1, 1-1-1) could muster, however. And McElreath was thrown out trying to stretch his hit into a double. Spears walked one--Steve Hamilton in the third--and promptly picked him off first.

After Antoon’s single with two out in the fourth, Spears retired the last 10 batters.

“We’re a defensive team,” Muckey said. “Pitching and defense, then wait, wait, wait for teams to beat themselves.”

The Celts scored the only run they needed in the second when Thomas’ double was followed by an error by Notre Dame shortstop Brian Woolley on Franco’s grounder. Chris Greenamyer’s single scored Franco.

With two out in the fourth, Greenamyer walked, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on a single by Dave Cameron. After Cameron moved to third on a wild pitch, Matt Arnold bunted for an RBI single. The bunt trickled down the third base line and stopped on the chalk as DeGrasse and catcher Bobby Hughes watched it.

“We haven’t been driving the runs home,” said Muckey, “so a two-out bunt wasn’t a bad deal.

“This is a great field. It’s always been good to me.”