Freshman Miles Scott comes up clutch, Servite baseball beats Santa Margarita 3-2 to sweep week
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Remember the name Miles Scott. The Servite right fielder played so well this week that head coach Shawn Gilbert refuses to call him a freshman.
"Not anymore," Scott said Friday. "He's been with us since the fall...He's been huge for us."
Scott hit a two out 2-RBI single in the bottom of the fifth inning to give Servite a 3-2 lead over Santa Margarita in game three of their Trinity League series on Friday. The Friars hung on to win by that score to sweep the Eagles a week after losing three in a row to Orange Lutheran.
Servite came into the season with only three outfielders, so Scott was always going to have a shot at playing. But locking down the right field spot and batting fifth in the Friars' order? Gilbert didn't expect that.
"He played really good defense all fall," Gilbert said. "He showed some pop, showed some good at bats and in our game on Wednesday he got the base hit that brought up the next guy who hit a home run so he's been huge. He's getting better every day."
In the first inning of game three, Scott robbed Santa Margarita's Blake Wilson of an extra base hit by sprinting for a deep fly ball and making the catch just before crashing into the right field fence.
"My elbow is a little scraped up," Scott said. "But I'll be fine."
HOW IT HAPPENED
Both Servite starter Chris Grothues, a UCLA commit, and Santa Margarita starter Collin Clarke pitched four scoreless innings, but ran into trouble in the fifth.
In the top of the fifth inning, Grothues walked two batters and then threw a wild pitch and was pulled. Grothues didn't allow a hit in his four innings of work, but he exited the game with Santa Margarita runners on first and third base with no outs. Junior Colin Galvin relieved Grothues. During the first batter he faced, Galvin made a throwing error tossing a ball to first base, which brought home Eagles sophomore Logan De Groot.
Galvin then had a wild pitch of his own and Blake Balsz went from second to third after he had advanced from first to second on Galvin's throwing error. Alex Grace pinch ran for Balsz at third and scored on a triple from Zach Fjelstad later in the inning. From there, Galvin got out of the fifth with Santa Margarita up 2-0.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Clarke gave up a single to Servite's Austin Rabago and then walked two straight batters. Clarke then battled back to strike out Roman Martin, but he walked the following Servite hitter, Trevor Schmidt, on a 3-and-2 count giving the Friars their first run of the game.
Clark was pulled after the walk and replaced by Tanner Warady. Scott was the first batter Warady faced and he hit a single up the middle scoring two runs to put Servite ahead 3-2.
"I knew I had to battle right there," Scott said. "I'm not going down without a fight. That's what happened."
Galvin pitched the final two innings for Servite sealing the 3-2 victory to earn the save.
