SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO – It was an essential game for both baseball teams.
JSerra won it, beating Servite 4-2 in a Trinity League game Tuesday at JSerra High School.
Jonathan Mendez drove in two runs and had a solo home run, and Dominic Smaldino also hit a solo homer for the Lions.
Matt Champion pitched six innings to get the win and improve to 4-2.
Both teams went into this week, the second-to-last week of the regular season, below third place in the league standings. Only the top three teams in the final standings are guaranteed playoff berths. The other teams have to hope for an at-large berth.
JSerra is 5-5 in league and in fourth place, one-half game behind third-place Orange Lutheran, which beat St. John Bosco 10-6 Tuesday and improved to 6-5 in league. Santa Margarita is in first place at 9-1 with Mater Dei second at 7-3.
JSerra is No. 2 in this week’s Orange County Top 25 and was last year’s CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion.
It has won 10 of its past 12 games and is 14-8 overall.
Serra coach Brett Kay wasn’t thrilled with the manner in which the Lions won, citing a lack of urgency among the players when they went ahead 3-0.
“I felt when it was 3-0 we kind of coasted,” Kay said. “We left six runners on base in the first two innings. It’s hard because Servite is a good team.”
No. 7 Servite (13-11) is in fifth place in the Trinity League with a 3-7 record. Finishing at .500 or better overall is a criteria for getting an at-large berth.
Servite and JSerra both have five league games remaining. They play each other Wednesday at Servite and Friday at JSerra.
JSerra next week has three league games against Orange Lutheran while Servite plays Mater Dei three times next week.
The Lions had early opportunities to build a huge lead. They loaded the bases in the first and second innings but could not score.
Servite loaded the bases in the top of the first but the Friars could not score.
Smaldino (6-6, 230), who signed with Cal,…
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