Cardinal Newman’s Alvin Murray III gets a hit against Augusta Christian. Photo by Mike Maddock
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The Augusta Christian Lions scored eight runs on ten hits to defeat the Cardinal Newman Cardinals 8-0 Thursday, May 16 in the decisive Game 3 of the SCISA 4A baseball championship series.
A night after scoring seven runs, the Cardinals struggled to get their offense going. Cardinal Newman’s only two hits of the game came in the top of the sixth with singles from Alvin Murray III and Jeb Britt.
“At the end of the day it’s a talented group over there,” Cardinal Newman head coach Robert Hendrix said of Augusta Christian. “They were able to string together some more hits than us. We just kind of struggled offensively. Their guy kept us off balance. We just couldn’t get anything going.”
While the Cardinals looked from some offense, Augusta Christian methodically built a commanding lead. It began with a three-run first inning. Khaleel Pratt got things going with a two-out walk. Ethan Duckworth reached on an error, scoring Pratt as the Lions took a 1-0 lead. After Wilson Donnelley singled, Eric Doyon blooped a single into shallow left field, scoring Duckworth to increase the lead to 2-0. Austin Fox followed with a sharp grounder to left field, scoring Donnelley for the third run of the inning.
Augusta Christian tacked on a solo home run from Luca Perriello in the second to cushion its lead to 4-0 through two innings.
The Lions blew it open in the bottom of the fourth. First Jonah Shipes blasted a solo home run. Then Santiago Pacheco singled. Two batters later, Pratt drew another walk to put two on with two out. Duckworth smacked a fly ball that hit the bottom of the left field wall, scoring Pratt and courtesy runner Ashton Moore as the Lions’ lead grew to 7-0.
In the bottom of the fifth, Malachi Duncan hit a two-out single. Shipes drew a walk. Then Pacheco hit a hard ground ball to right field, scoring courtesy runner Charlie Davis to set the final score at 8-0.
Murray and Britt each went 1-for-2 at the plate.
Isaac Yarnall got the start on the mound for Cardinal Newman. He went four innings giving up four earned runs on eight hits while striking out four.
“The word relentless was something we wanted to be about,” Hendrix said. “We wanted to be relentless, selfless, and be good brothers to each other. This group has epitomized it all year. They’ve been relentless all year. They just keep fighting. It’s just a great group of young men. They are incredible men of character, incredible men of faith, and I think it shows in the way they play the game. I’m just honored to have the chance to be their coach this spring.
Pacheco led Augusta Christian on the mound. He went 5-1/3 innings giving up no runs or hits while striking out five. Pacheco also went 2-for-4 at the plate with an RBI.
Duckworth went 1-for-4 with two RBI. Shipes went 2-for-2 with a home run and an RBI. Perriello and Fox each went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Perriello had a home run. Doyon finished 1-for-4 with an RBI.
Cardinal Newman finishes the season 21-9-1.
“It’s remarkable,” Hendrix said. “ We gave ourselves a chance to win the championship in the last game of the season. A lot of times that’s all you can ask. I think sometimes you need some breaks to go your way, and they didn’t go our way. Not to take anything away from Augusta. That’s an incredibly talented ball club. They earned every bit of that. For these guys, for my first year, for them to embrace this coaching change like they have and play the high quality baseball they have, it’s remarkable and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this group.”
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