TRINITY-CATHOLIC BASEBALL: Darkness ends key series, AHSAA ruling hands Wildcats win
Wildcats celebrate home run by Land Sharpless as Trinity earns a win over Catholic. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Trinity found the game-winning hit to take Friday’s opener with Catholic in the 11th inning, then rode the momentum to a sweep of the Knights in the second game, eliminating Catholic from postseason consideration.
The Wildcats won the first game 6-5, turning the third game of the series into a must-win situation for Catholic. The three-hour, 11-inning marathon set back the start time for the second game of the doubleheader to 4:30 p.m. and darkness settled in at Whittle-Armstrong Field at the end of the sixth inning, forcing a stoppage of play.
The two coaches initially set Saturday for the final inning of play, but Alabama High School Athletic Association rules state that “if weather or darkness interferes with play so that the game is called by the umpire, it is a regulation game” if it meets the required criteria.
“You want to come out here and finish the game because you’ve got two teams that played extremely hard today,” Catholic coach Allen Ponder said before he learned the final 8-7 score in favor of Trinity would remain as the official score. “Trinity’s done a great job of pounding the zone and throwing strikes, we have not done a good job of pounding the zone and throwing strikes today. I just feel like there were times when we lacked a little bit of energy.”
Next week, Trinity (10-7 overall, 5-1 in 4A Area 5 play) will close out area play with a home game against Tallassee (6-0) on Thursday, followed by a doubleheader on Friday at Southside Middle School. The Wildcats must sweep the first two games of the series to win the area, but the second game against Catholic (16-6 overall, 3-3 in area play) served as a tiebreaker, ensuring the Wildcats are in the playoffs regardless of the outcome of next week’s Tallassee-Trinity matchup or Catholic-LAMP matchup.
Trinity’s win in the 11-inning game put the Wildcats in position to reach the playoffs after losing the first game of the series on Thursday.
“That was a must-win,” Trinity coach Chad Mansmann said. “They threw a punch and we answered it; they threw another punch and we answered it. We gave some freebies, they gave some freebies. It was a rollercoaster of a ride. Fortunately, our guys didn’t flinch and did enough to overcome a lot of adversity.”
The Wildcats took a 4-0 lead into the fifth inning when Catholic responded with four runs to tie the game. After the Wildcats took a 5-4 lead in the seventh, Trinity loaded the bases and scored on a wild pitch to tie the game. Four innings followed before John Allen Schroll finally hit a bases-loaded single to drive in the game-winning run.
“We had a ton of opportunities, just couldn’t get a big hit,” Ponder said. “We dodged bullets for about three innings in those extra innings and you knew eventually they were going to get a big hit and they did. They finally got that big hit and carried that momentum into game two, but we did a good job of coming out and putting up a number.”
Catholic came out in the first inning of the second game and grabbed a 3-0 lead with the help of RBI singles by Will Blackwell and Will Vucovich, only to have the Wildcats counter with four runs in the bottom half of the inning, fueled by a solo home run by Mason Hawkins, a two-run double by Luke Hall and an RBI single from Patton Mitchell.
“That was a great answer on our part,” Mansmann said. “Our guys showed a lot of resilience today. I’m proud of how they battled because (on Thursday) they jumped out on us early and we just stayed flat the rest of the game. Today has been a total 180 (degrees) from our boys.”
Hawkins delivered a two-run single in the sixth inning that propelled Trinity to an 8-7 lead before game officials halted play minutes later. Both coaches agreed to complete the game on Saturday before AHSAA officials notified the coaches the game score was final.
“I was happy with the way we came out and scored in the first inning,” Ponder said, “but when you do that, you’ve got to be able to come out and throw strikes and make them earn everything they got. They made us pay for all the walks we had today.”
Five Catholic pitchers walked 13 Trinity batters and hit four more. Eight of those eventually scored.