Clemente coach Rich Tomoleoni flashed the sign for baseball’s most daring play: the bases-loaded suicide squeeze.
Rich Collazo, representing the tying run on third base, wasn’t at all surprised. “I expected it,” he said. “I was looking for it.”
Noel Padilla, representing the winning run on second, knew he would break on the pitch and also try to score on the bunt.
Jose A. Alvarado, the batter at the time, said, “I was hopeful I’d see the squeeze sign. We bunt a lot. I was glad when I saw the sign.”
And Tomoleoni, who has coached more than 600 victories, had a thought for Alvarado, the man who had to execute the squeeze at the critical moment in the sixth inning of Monday’s Clemente-Mather Public League title game at Wrigley Field.
“I thought he’d better get it down,” Tomoleoni said, “or he’ll wish he’d never been born. . .”
Alvarado never had to entertain such thoughts. His successful squeeze scored both runs, and Clemente awarded its noisy, enthusiastic fans with a 9-8 victory for its seventh Public League title.
National League teams that regularly play in Wrigley Field would feel good about executing the suicide squeeze as Clemente did. Alvarado pushed his bunt toward third base as Collazo scored easily. Padilla never slowed down. He rounded third before Alvarado was retired at first. He forced a hurried high throw to the plate, and slid home with the run that put Clemente ahead 9-8.
Three more outs remained. Reliever-winner Jose J. Alvarado achieved them with the aid of a slick game-ending double play. So Clemente players celebrated by running to the outfield wall, where each plucked an ivy leaf trophy for his scrapbook.
Clemente improved its record to 22-16 and earned a berth in the state tournament starting Friday at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva.
Clemente had to fight from behind. Mather (23-15) took a 5-1 lead when catcher Chris Rodriguez’s two-run triple keyed a four-run third. Mather eventually took an 8-4 lead when the usually steady Clemente defense committed two errors and allowed three unearned runs in the fifth.
“When we fell behind by four,” Tomoleoni cracked, “I wished I was out playing golf.” His players, however, never lost the faith.
“We never quit. We stayed calm,” said Collazo. “We’re taught to keep our heads that way.”
Collazo epitomized the Clemente spirit. He was plunked by pitched balls in the third, fifth and sixth innings; each time, he scored.
Rodriguez came close to being the star of a Mather victory. He saved a run in the second when he threw out an attempted base-stealer just ahead of Filberto Velez’s triple. He tripled home two runs in the third. He walked and scored in the fifth.
Then in the sixth with Mather leading 8-7, he slugged a bases-loaded, two-out drive to deep right-center. But Velez robbed him a bases-clearing hit with a circus catch.
“Velez was our man of the hour,” said Tomoleoni. “He made that catch, and he got three big hits.”
Six Mather errors presented Clemente with six unearned runs, including the tying and winning scores in the sixth when Clemente did not make a hit.
