Depth propels Cardinals to district win

SHINER — The Shiner St. Paul baseball team grabbed their second district win, starting the season strong with a 2-0 record as they took down Kerrville Our Lady of the Hills 11-1 in five innings.

“We came out and we did what we had to do to win,” head coach Charlie Meischen. “We took care of business. I thought there were sometimes where we were kind of lagging but we fought through it and came back and put a three-run fifth inning. I’m happy about that. I talked about that before, we got to pick up the intensity and the fun a little bit because a long game like this can wear you.”

Although the Cardinals had base running issues in earlier innings, the ball players were able to fix their mistakes in game and run-rule their district opponents.

“We knocked ourselves out in the first inning with two outs that shouldn’t have happened,” he said. “We literally worked on that the day before. It’s just them being over aggressive and not being smart. You can’t do that, you got to play within yourself the whole game and know when to take those chances and our guys mentally weren’t there for that.”

One of the top hitters for the Cardinals was Conor Kresta, who went 2-for-3 with a double, a triple and two RBIs. Meischen gave him props as well as starting pitcher Ryan Malinovsky who pitched 4.1 innings.

“[Malinovsky was] efficient enough to where we can bring just one guy and shut the door,” he said. “I was happy, I was proud of him. The new pitch count rule only allows him so many pitches for so many days of rest so I took him out at 59-60 pitches because 65 will be three days, so he’ll be able to play against Sacred Heart if we need him. I was proud of him. He did what he had to do.”

Meischen called upon Dalton Jahn to finish out the inning. After already scoring a run, Kerrville OLH had a man on first and second with one out on the board. Jahn was able to strike out the next two batters to stop the bleeding.

“That’s a kid we’ve been working on,” Meischen said, “we’ve been working the last couple of weeks trying to get his form down. I was very proud of him. There was a little bit of pressure. We had a comfortable lead but still you come in with some runners on in that situation with some pressure and I’m glad he rose up to the occasion.”

The bottom of the lineup also impressed the head coach as the final three batters, Luke Darilek, Jacob Darilek and Noah Leist either got on base via walk or put the ball in play, which is exactly what the head coach is looking for.

“I think this is probably the deepest roster we’ve had since I’ve been around,” Meischen said. “So when the six, seven, eight or nine guy comes up, I got confidence they’ll at least put the ball in play and give us a chance.”

Luke Darilek, the seventh batter in the lineup, had a walk-off hit to run-rule Kerrville OLH.

The Cardinals also have depth in the pitching rotation with Malinovsky as their second pitcher and Jahn as their third.

“I would say Conor [Kresta] is probably our ace on the mound,” Meischen explained. “We threw our second guy and our third guy and really our second and third guys are really dang good out there. I believe our pitching depth, for a pitch-count rule, I’m happy that we got about three or four guys we can go to if something happens like that.”

The Shiner St. Paul are set to take on Hallettsville Sacred Heart tonight with first pitch set at 6 p.m.