Catholic High won the Division I select state championship in 2022 and has flexed its muscle again this season with a No. 23 national ranking in the MaxPreps Top 25.
Catholic led 2-0 in the third inning of Thursday’s key District 4-5A game against Central after Prescott Marsh singled in a pair of runs.
When the Wildcats tied the game in the fourth, it shifted the burden on the Bears to respond.
Catholic did just that, taking advantage of a pair of errors and five walks to go with a couple of key hits in a 9-2 victory at Grizzly Field.
“It’s a testament to these kids,” said Catholic coach Brad Bass, whose team is the No. 1 team in the LHSAA’s Division I select unofficial power ratings. “They believe in an on-the-line style of play, responding when you get hits. We came out and scored early, they responded right back and then there was no letdown in our guys.”
Catholic (22-2, 2-0 4-5A) travels to Central (15-7, 1-1) for a 6 p.m. game Friday before returning home for the series finale at noon Saturday.
“You have to beat them in a low-scoring game because of their pitching staff,” said Central’s Leo McClure, coach of the No. 10 team in the Division I nonselect unofficial power ratings. “When it was 2-2, we made two mistakes that not only cost us four or five runs, but it made our pitcher’s pitch count go way up which hurt us.”
Catholic’s winning pitcher Harris Waghalter (4-0) allowed two runs on two hits. He walked three, hit a batter and struck out two in a 93-pitch outing.
Catholic snapped the 2-2 tie with four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth.
Jake Ruckert drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Andrew Clapinski in the fifth and Clayton Pourciau’s liner glanced off the right foot of Central’s starting pitcher Grayden Harris (5-1) and into shallow right field, driving in two more runs.
Harris pitched 4⅓ innings, yielding nine runs (four earned), six hits, six walks, hit three batters and struck out one.
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