ENCINO — Crespi infielder Mikey Martinez is a sophomore, but his character exceeds his year in school to head coach Mike Glendenning.
“There’s a lot of times I look at him,” Glendenning said, “and the way he carries himself, the maturity, sometimes I look at him as a 22-, 23-year-old man.”
So it was with little surprise that Martinez laced a three-run home run to left field to score over half of the runs needed for the Celts to beat Mater Dei 4-3 in the first round of the CIF SoCal Regional Division I playoffs.
Crespi, which was eliminated in the CIF Southern Section Open Division quarterfinals, will have to wait to learn their regional semifinal opponent. Tuesday’s game between Santa Margarita and Patrick Henry was rescheduled due to inclement weather and will be played at noon on Wednesday.
Santa Margarita shut out the Celts 12-0 to knock them out of the CIF-SS playoffs. Even though that game was nearly two weeks ago, it’s still on the Celts’ minds.
“The loss was really hurtful to us with all of our seniors leaving,” Martinez said, “so it kind of left something in me, a little drive to go back out there. It motivated me to do better.”
Martinez made his first start at shortstop on Tuesday and caught a fly ball to end the top of the second inning before stepping up to hit his home run in the bottom of the third.
Leadoff hitter Troy Miller was walked and three-spot Josh Stonehouse was hit by a pitch before Martinez drove them in.
Usual leadoff Landon Hodge is preparing for the MLB Draft and did not participate in Tuesday’s game. Nate Lopez and Diego Lopez did not play due to prior college obligations.
“What we do as a program trickles down into the guys who got the opportunity to play today,” Glendenning said. “And I think that showed on the field. We play a lot of small ball and execute. That younger group that’s following those guys are bought into that, and it proved to be successful for us.”
Freshman Nathan Toscano…
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