Walk-off winner: Cardinal Newman baseball forces decisive game in SCISA title series

Backs against the wall. The momentum in the other dugout. No panic for Cardinal Newman baseball.

The Cardinals evened the best-of-3 SCISA Class 4A championship series at 1-1 with Augusta Christian after an emotional 7-6 victory in eight innings at Tronco Field. Reid Stewart, who started the bottom of the eighth with a single, scored from second base on an infield error to force the decisive Game 3.

Game 3 will be played Thursday at Lexington High School. First pitch is tentatively scheduled for 7 pm.

“You have to find a way,” Cardinal Newman coach Robert Hendrix said. “We talked all day about the biggest thing we have to do is leave nothing out there. Put your head down tonight knowing you did everything you could to get to tomorrow. Live in the moment.”

Cardinal Newman (21-8-1) had to have this one to force the winner-take-all scenario. They rode the pitching of Jeb Britt for six innings and then withstood a four-run outburst by the defending champion Lions (18-11) in the top of the seventh inning that tied it at 6-6.

Stewart started the rally with a single through the right side. Harry Weaver then walked on five pitches and then a strikeout brought leadoff hitter Hardt Rowland to the plate. Rowland grounded slowly to first and instead of getting the out, the Lions tried to get the force at second base and failed, allowing Stewart to score.

“I didn’t know he was going curveball there, but I was already going with it. I got a little lucky with it a little bit,” Rowland said. “All these guys fight until the end.”

For a while, it didn’t look like any late game heroics would be needed. The Cardinals scored one in the first on a double steal that saw Rowland steal home. That came after a 57-minute rain delay.

They added two more in the second on RBI singles from Chaplin Cox and Austin Laughlin.

Britt was cruising along until the sixth. Khaleel Pratt, a Kentucky signee, hit a towering two-run home run to right field to trim the Augusta Christian deficit to 3-2.

The Cardinals responded with a three-spot in the bottom half of the inning. Cox added the first run with a squeeze bunt, a throwing error by the Lions catcher allowed Stewart to score and Rowland followed with a sacrifice fly that made it 6-2 Cardinal Newman after six innings.

But Augusta Christian rallied with four runs to force the extra inning. The first three Lions reached on two singles and a walk to end the night for Britt after 99 pitches. Reliever Tristian Neely recorded the first two outs with back-to-back strikeouts before the Cardinals’ coaching staff elected to walk Pratt with the bases loaded.

“Britt was incredible,” Hendrix said. “He threw big pitch after big pitch.”

Back-to-back infield singles from Ethan Duckworth and Wilson Donnelley made it 6-5 then a bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 count brought in the tying run.

Nelly worked a perfect top of the eighth to set the stage for the winning rally.

“Our backs were against the wall. These kids have worked so hard all year and they wanted this one,” Hendrix said.

W: Tristian Neely. L: Khaleel Pratt. Hitters: CN – Hardt Rowland 2-4, RBI; Alex Abreu 2-4, 3B; Reid Stewart 3 runs scored. AC: Pratt 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; Wilson Donnelley 2-4; Austin Fox 2-4.