| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCDS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| JPII | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | – | 7 | 4 | 3 |
The John Paul II Catholic High School baseball team took an early lead Thursday and maintained control the rest of the way in a 7-1 victory over visiting Forsyth Country Day in the second round of the NCISAA Class 3A playoffs.
JPII improved to 16-8 and now will play Saturday at top-seeded High Point Christian, which finished the regular season 24-2 overall and then had byes through the first two rounds of the postseason. Forsyth Country Day finished 6-15.
Freshman J.T. Williams turned in a workmanlike performance on the mound to earn the win. He struck out four in five innings and gave up one unearned run. Ethan Staton was sharp in relief to earn the save, giving up one hit — on a soft blooper that found empty space between short and left field — and walking none.
Single hits were recorded by Nike Wiggins, Axel Keller, Williams, and James Donofrio. The opportunistic Saints also had five runners reach on walks, and took maximum advantage of four errors by the Furies. Only two of JPII’s runs were earned.
In the bottom of the first, Wiggins and Ray Shaw led off with a pair of walks. Wiggins scored and Shaw ended up at third on a line-drive single to left by Keller, who took second on the throw. Williams drove in Shaw and moved Keller to third on a fielder’s choice to make it 2-0. With two outs, Ryker Butcher hit a fly ball to left that the left-fielder dropped, scoring Keller. Butcher — who had thrown out an attempted steal of second to end the top of the first — stole second before Joseph Caporossi took his place as a courtesy runner. Caporossi scored on a line-drive single to center by Donofrio, making it 4-0.
FCDS took advantage of two errors to score its run in the top of the fifth, but JPII quickly responded. Keller reached on a one-out error by the third baseman and took second on the same error. He took third and then home on passed balls. With two outs, both Noah Sugg and Butcher walked. Donofrio hit a grounder to the second baseman, who made an error. That enabled Sugg to score and Butcher to take third. Senior Tyler Winkler followed with a hard grounder to the shortstop, who made a bad throw to first and enabled Butcher to score.
The 16 wins is a program record for JPII, which now is making its third-consecutive trip to a state quarterfinal after advancing in Class 2A the last two seasons.
