Baseball Going To State!

7-5 victory over Stringer in the Class 1A South State championship series. The win cinched a berth in the Class 1A championship series at Trustmark starting Thursday. (Gary Haygood/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius baseball players celebrate their 7-5 victory over Stringer in the Class 1A South State championship series. The win cinched a berth in the Class 1A championship series at Trustmark starting Thursday. (Gary Haygood/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius beats rival Stringer in Game 3
By Ernest Bowker ebowker@vicksburgpost.com
Published: Monday, May 11, 2009 6:49 AM CDT

STRINGER — St. Aloysius exorcised a demon, vanquished the Devils, and moved one step closer to baseball heaven.

Pierson Waring went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and a clutch two-run double, and Ryno Martin-Nez drove in two runs with a double and threw two innings of scoreless relief as St. Al beat the Stringer Red Devils 7-5 in Game 3 of the Class 1A South State championship series on Saturday.

The victory sends the Flashes (26-4) into the Class 1A finals for the first time since 2002. They’ll play either West Union or Ingomar in a best-of-three series starting Thursday at 1 p.m. at Trustmark Park in Pearl.

“It feels amazing,” said Waring, who also earned the victory in two innings of effective relief work. “We’ve been working since the seventh grade to get here and it finally came.”

Part of the reason for St. Al’s long gap in championship appearances was Stringer. The Red Devils (21-6) had knocked St. Al out of the postseason twice in the past five years and seemed poised to do it again after taking Game 1 of the series on Thursday.

The Flashes battled back, though, winning Game 2 on Friday at Bazinsky Field before taking Game 3 on Saturday. It was the first time St. Al had faced elimination this postseason.

“It’s not over yet. Our ultimate goal is two more wins. But it feels pretty good to get here,” said St. Al catcher Sean Weaver, one of only three seniors in the starting lineup. “They had our number for how many years? I don’t know, but it was a bunch. To come down here and win it here makes it a little more sweet.”

The Flashes also had to go through nemesis Andrew Pierce, who had shut them out for nine innings in Game 1 and been a thorn in their sides for several seasons.

Pierce returned in a relief role in Game 3 and struck out 11 batters in 5 1/3 innings. The only time he faltered was in the fifth inning, when an error, a walk and a sacrifice bunt by Regan Nosser set up Waring’s two-out double to center. The hit brought in two runs and gave St. Al a 7-4 lead.

Pierce coaxed a groundout by Blake Haygood to end the fifth, then retired the next six batters in order — five of them on strikeouts. Before the fifth inning, he had set down seven of the eight batters he faced.

“We got runners at second and third, and that’s the RBI round. We had an opportunity to get some runs and we had our best hitter at the plate,” St. Al coach Clint Wilkerson said. “But it was different guys getting it done at different times and battling. Regan Nosser getting the bunt down and Pierson battling, those were both huge.”

Stringer got a run back in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Kolby Waldrop, then left two runners on in the sixth. In the seventh, junior Martin-Nez — the winning pitcher in Game 2 — set the Red Devils down in order to clinch it.

Martin-Nez got Waldrop to look at a curveball for strike three for the final out, sending the Flashes charging toward the mound and into a huge dogpile. The Red Devils, who have reached the South State finals twice in five seasons but not advanced beyond that, looked on helplessly from the third base dugout.

“That last inning there was a lot of adrenaline pumping. I finally settled down and threw strikes,” said Martin-Nez, who allowed one earned run in seven innings on the mound in the series. He added of the last out, “It was a good feeling. I’ve been thinking about that since last year.”

The game was a slugfest early. St. Al jumped on Stringer starter Derek Bynum for five runs in the first two innings before Pierce relieved him. Stringer countered with two unearned runs in the first inning and a two-run homer by Darius Beavers in the second to make it 5-4.

Stringer had a runner thrown out while trying to score on a wild pitch in the fourth inning, then hit into a double play right before Waldrop’s double in the fifth cut it to 7-5. In all, the Red Devils either left runners in scoring position or had someone thrown out on the basepaths in five of the seven innings.

“We just didn’t get the real big hit when we needed it,” Stringer coach Tommy Perkins said.

Also a Big Congratulations to the St. Al Golf Team for winning State and to Senior Price Blagg for qualifying for State in Track!

It was a big week-end for the Flashes!

Go Flashes!
Patty

Patty Mekus
Development Director & Alumni Affairs
Vicksburg Catholic School
St. Aloysius / St. Francis Xavier
1900 Grove St./ 1200 Hayes St.
Vicksburg, MS 39183
Office: 601-630-9762
Fax: 601-631-0430

For all of you who live out-of-town - I thought you might want to read this!