Reigning champs knocked out of playoffs
Catcher Riley Johnson fields a ball as Baytown Christian scores two more in the seventh inning to add to their lead in Shiner St. Paul’s 6-0 loss in the area round on Tuesday.
Sadie Morgan (3) pitched well in the game, going all seven innings, striking out nine while giving up nine hits, one walk and six runs. The sophomore will be one of many players returning to a team that’s expected to go deep in the playoffs next season.
Anna Adamek (5) makes a diving catch in between first and second base.
Delynn Pesek (15) shows off the ball after tagging out a runner in the second.
Riley Johnson (16) makes it to third in the first inning after taking advantage of a dropped strikeout ball.
SHINER — Coming into this season, the reigning champions Shiner St. Paul Lady Cardinals had another state title on their mind, especially since most of the team returning to the field contributed to last year’s group. Unfortunately, the dream of going back-to-back ended prematurely as the Lady Cardinals were knocked out of the playoffs on Tuesday, losing 6-0 to the Baytown Christian Academy Lady Bulldogs in the area round.
Baytown Christian’s Daniella Solis dominated on the mound, throwing 20 strikeouts in the game, with two of them dropped by the catcher. Of the 20 strikeouts, six of them were watched.
“You got to put the ball in play,” St. Paul’s head coach Lance Giese said. “If you put the ball in play, a couple times we did, we got on base, but you don’t put the ball in play it’s hard to win. It’s disappointing.”
Of the seven innings of play, there were only two innings where St. Paul didn’t leave a batter on base. The team left a total of eight runners on base, who made it safely on two errors, four hits, a dropped strikeout and a walk. But with runners in scoring position, the team went 2-for-10.
“Couldn’t get them around,” Giese noted. “We just couldn’t get the quality hit when we needed it. We got a couple on base [but] we weren’t able to get the [timely] hits.”
“[Solis is] an excellent pitcher,” he said. “She mixes it up. We played Schertz John Paul the other day, that girl threw harder but this girl is a better pitcher, mixing it up and all things like that. But defensively we played well. Credit to her for pitching.”
On the mound for St. Paul was Sadie Morgan, who pitched all seven innings, giving up six runs and nine hits while striking out nine and walking one batter.
“I thought Sadie started out the year slow and she slowly got it back,” Giese said of his sophomore pitcher. “I thought she pitched fine. A couple hits in that one inning and they got a couple of runs. I didn’t think two runs would be enough to beat us but it was, it did.”
Two batters made it on base twice in the game. Riley Johnson took advantage of a dropped-ball strikeout and made it safe to first in the first inning. She also had a triple in the seventh inning. Meanwhile, Grace Irvin made it safely via error in the third and a single via bunt in the fifth. Other hitters include Mallory Pokluda going 1-for-3 and Emma Morgan going 1-for-3.
The team loses three seniors, but returns a solid group that’s expected to be back in the playoff picture next season.
“We got a good group coming back,” Giese said. “I want to thank the seniors, Trinity Kusak, Haley Clampit and Irena Fikac, great leaders throughout the year. Got a good group coming back, try to do it again next year.”
BCA 000 202 2 – 6 9 2
SPH 000 000 0 – 0 4 1
Comments