Less than twenty-four hours after experiencing the thrill of a walk-off victory, the Sharks felt the agony of a walk-off loss. Mary Star of the Sea scored a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to come away with a 5-4 win over Malibu at Fromhold Field in San Pedro.
After Malibu went down in order in the top of the first, the Stars got on the board quickly in their half of the inning. Sharks starting pitcher Jacob Perrin retired the first two hitters on two pitches, but then ran the count to 3-0 to Stars catcher Johnny Cigliano. Cigliano drilled the next pitch over the left field fence to stake Mary Star to an early 1-0 lead.
Perrin made a bid to tied the game leading off the top of the second, but his drive to the warning track in center field was hauled in by Robert Torres. After Justin Hale grounded to first for the second out of the inning, Jesse Conrad singled to left. Nate Schoenbrun followed with another base hit and the Sharks took a 2-1 lead when Matt Bordier doubled into the right field corner.
Malibu surrendered the lead in the bottom of the third. With two outs in the inning, Stars shortstop Peter Ciaramitaro hit a slow roller to third and wound up on second as Hale’s throw sailed over Conrad’s head at first. After Cigliano walked, third baseman Danny Martinez doubled down the left field line to drive in Ciaramitaro and move Cigliano to third. Cigliano and Martinez both scored one batter later when Tony Gwyn bobbled a ball off the bat of pinch hitter Nick Rukavina.
Down 4-2, the Sharks’ bats went quiet until the sixth inning. After Perrin flied to right for the first out of the inning, Hale singled to left and advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt. Jesse Conrad drove in Hale with his second hit of the day. Schoenbrun flied to center and, with Bordier at the plate, Conrad advanced to second on a passed ball. Bordier then collected his second hit and third RBI of the day to knot the score at 4-4.
With two down in the bottom of the sixth and a runner on second, Jesse Conrad relieved Perrin on the mound and got Quentin Powell to ground out to end a small scoring threat.
With the top of the order up in the top of the seventh, Malibu was looking for a repeat of Friday’s last-inning heroics. However, the inning went quickly as Monty Biglow struck out, Tony Gwyn grounded out to short, and, after a very long and loud foul ball, Stephen Williams popped out to short.
In the bottom of the seventh, Conrad recorded two quick outs before running into trouble. James Fauscette hit a weak liner to third for the first out and Torres quickly grounded to second. With a 1-2 count on him, Conrad came too far inside and hit Ciaramitaro to give the Stars the opening they needed.
Ciaramitaro stole second on a 1-0 pitch to Cigliano. With first base vacant, Malibu elected to put Cigliano on first via an intentional walk. Danny Martinez followed with a long fly-ball that dropped near the warning track allowing Ciaramitaro to score the winning run.
In his first outing of the season, Jacob Perrin gave up just one earned run in five and two-thirds innings of work. He struck out six and walked four.
Matt Bordier led the Sharks at the plate with a double, a single, and three RBIs. Jesse Conrad was on base three times, twice with base hits and once with a walk.
Next up for the Sharks is a home game on Wednesday against the LA Baptist Knights.
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