When the Santa Monica High baseball team lost a home game to Beverly Hills High on Tuesday, May 1, the importance of a rematch two days later at Beverly Hills was magnified.
Santa Monica, which lost the first game, 3-2, came back with a 17-1 rout to emerge with a one-game lead in the Ocean League.
Samohi entered the final week of the regular season with a 7-1 league record. Beverly Hills is 6-2 and Culver City, 5-3. All three are likely to qualify for the CIF playoffs.
In the first game, Samohi had a 2-1 lead entering the fifth inning before the visitors scored two runs to hand Devon Ramirez the loss.
Ramirez walked seven batters and struck out six. Bryan Eyler had three hits for Samohi and drove in one of the runs.
Samohi didn’t waste any time taking charge of the second meeting. The Vikings scored four runs in the second inning and seven in the fifth.
Joe McGrew pitched the first five innings for the win. Ramirez had three RBIs and Eyler, Dorion Smith and Casey Reese each had two.
Samohi won, 5-2, at Culver City Tuesday, May 8, and for its final home regular season game Thursday, May 10, Culver City is also the opponent. Results are not available for the May 10 game at press time.
