Cardinals’ season end with shutout loss

BROOKSHIRE — A tough third inning eventually led to St. Paul’s downfall as the Cardinals fell 5-0 against Pasadena First Baptist last Thursday.

“This whole year has kind of been our deal where we get to the third inning with Conor Kresta pitching and it’s like the wheels start shaking on the bus a little bit and start to fall off,” Cardinals’ head coach Charlie Meischen said. “I feel like we gave them six outs that inning. You give a team that many more chances, they’re going to put it to you and they put the runs up.”

After the first batter struck out, Kresta gave up a single then the next three batters made it safely via error, hit-by-pitch and another error. Pasadena First Baptist would score three in that inning.

Meischen referenced the first inning, however, as a tone-setting inning that unfortunately effected the Cardinals in a negative way.

“The first inning, I guess the interference call cost us a run,” Meischen said. “I preached all year how we need to stay mentally in it the whole year. Seven innings, we got to stay in it. And I think that call, unfortunately messed with our heads a little bit. I think we kind of backtracked a little bit from the explosion we wanted to have, or the attitude we wanted to have. I think it brought us down a little bit. It’s a mental game, we got to stay in it for seven innings and I think we kind of let up a little bit.”

In the fourth inning, senior pitcher Ryan Malinovsky took to the mound in relief to try to shut down Pasadena First Baptist. He would finish out the game allowing just one hit, one walk and one run, while striking out one batter in his 2.2 innings of play.

“Ryan is a senior. He’s a better reliever than a starter,” Meischen noted. “When he comes in relief he does a great job. I’m going to miss him because he’s a big part of the program.”

At the plate, the Cardinals were able to get on base. However, their aggressive base running proved to be an issue as Pasadena First Baptist’s catcher had the arm to throw people out.

“We got the kids on base,” Meischen said. “As a coach, you just do what you can. I try to get these guys in position and unfortunately they had a good catcher, he threw us out a couple of times. It’s tough. They’re a good team. We didn’t show up tonight. You do what you can, we had to scramble for some runs and it didn’t work out in our favor.”

Shiner St. Paul ends their season in the bi-district round after coming out of TAPPS District 4 – Div. IV in second behind Hallettsville Sacred Heart. The Cardinals will lose a handful of seniors.

“I first started volunteering at the school when they were freshmen and they’ve matured in a way that the school needed them to mature,” Meischen said, “whether that be football, basketball, baseball, all other sports. There’s a lot of freshmen that, if [the seniors] didn’t keep them in check, we were going to do a lot of running in practice. They stood up and took control of the team. I just wished [the season] would have turned out better for them.”