Hico – Charleston Catholic has been the standard for quite some time when it comes to Class A Region 3 baseball.
Fielding a young team this season, the question has been can the Irish maintain that dominance?
Tuesday night the visitors from the Capital City proved they still look like the team to beat for a trip to the state baseball tournament.
Riding the solid pitching of freshman sensation Jonah DiCocco and benefiting from timely hits, Charleston Catholic defeated sectional rival Midland Trail 10-3.
“The philosophy of Charleston Catholic (baseball) is to put the pressure on the defense and make them make a play,” Irish head coach Will Bobinger said. “I am starting five sophomores, two freshman, a senior and a junior. We have been struggling a little bit trying to figure out who we are, but we put it together tonight. I was real happy with the performance.”
A lead-off single by Gannon Morris and a walk to Gage Tawney got things going sideways early for the Patriots. A walk and two hit batsmen later, the Irish led 2-0 before Trail had stepped in the batters box.
The home team settled down however, and cut the lead in half in bottom of the third inning without the aid of a base hit.
Cody Harrell made it to first base on a dropped third strike and promptly swiped second base. When the throw went into centerfield, Harrell raced for third base. The throw came in low, going under the fence which allowed Harrell to score.
Trail seemed to have seized the momentum when the first two Irish batters in the top of the fourth were retired in order.
A walk to the No. 9 hitter changed the entire complexion of the game.
After a ground ball from Morris could not be handled, the table was set for Tawney and the sophomore catcher delivered.
Riding a fastball up in the zone, Tawney blasted a three-run shot over the centerfield fence for a 5-1 lead.
“It was a 2-1 game, then we had a walk, and an error and boom, a three-run homer. That’s baseball,” Midland Trail head coach John Mark Kincaid said. “Most of the hits were after we messed up. To their credit, they made plays and we didn’t. They whooped us. I’m not saying we should have won that game, but if we had made plays, it would have been a 4-2 or 3-1 baseball game.”
Tawney’s blast was more than enough for DiCocco who allowed just one hit over his six innings of work while fanning 14 batters.
“It was actually his worst performance of the year,” Bobinger said, smiling. “In his last game against Roane County he pitched five innings and struck out 14 without any hits. The other batter we threw out trying to steal after a walk. He is very polished. He plays on a travel team in the summer that is one of the more elite teams and goes national. He plays at a very high level.”
Charleston Catholic (5-3) added five runs in the final two innings, all coming with two outs to put the game away, again aided by some sloppy play from the Patriots (5-6).
“Right now we can’t get out of our own way. Like one player said in the huddle, we just have to start making plays,” Kincaid said. “Our baseball IQ will get better and it will come with experience.”
Also fielding some young players pressed into duty as a result of a couple of injuries to key players, Kincaid spoke about the positives from the game.
“That kid pitched a fantastic game and I give them credit, they are a good team. But, if we play our game, they are beatable,” Kincaid said. “Our section and our region are wide open and the most wide open that it has ever been. The next three weeks we just need to get better. We will get better. We just need reps and playing time.”
