Comeback effort falls short for baseball team

Trailing by eight runs heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, the John Paul II Catholic High School baseball team made things really interesting before eventually falling 9-6 to visiting Bear Grass on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.

The Saints battled valiantly and even had the tying run at the plate before making the final out. With his team down 9-1, Ray Shaw got the comeback attempt started with a one-out single to left. J.T. Williams followed with a single and took second on the unsuccessful attempt by the Bears to get Shaw out at third. Tyler Winkler drove in Shaw with a single to left, advancing Williams to third. Axel Keller, who earlier had scored JPII’s first run after leading off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to right-center, then singled to left to plate Williams and move Winkler to second.

James Donofrio hit a hard grounder to short which was misplayed into an error, loading the bases. Then with two outs, Caleb Thrift hit another grounder to short which was misplayed into an error, enabling Winkler to score to make it 9-4 and leaving the bases still loaded. Noah Sugg forced in Keller after being hit by a pitch, then Donofrio scored on a passed ball before the final out was made.

The Bears are a very good offensive team, as they proved by pounding out 16 hits, many with two strikes on the batter. JPII committed only one error, and pitchers Aaron Gregory, Ethan Staton, and Donofrio combined to walk just two batters. 

The Saints dropped to 5-3 overall. They will play host to Freedom Christian out of Fayetteville on Monday before visiting Wayne Country Day on Tuesday. Wayne Christian will visit JPII on Thursday, March 23.