By LEE HILLER, Journal Sports
Calvary Baptist used another outstanding pitching performance to bounce back in the third game of its series with Catholic-Pointe Coupee to defeat the Hornets 3-2 Saturday and advance to the Division IV state baseball semifinals.
The Cavaliers were up against elimination after losing to Catholic-PC 9-4 Friday, but Cody VanNoppen limited the Hornets to three hits and two runs over seven innings and struck out six in the deciding game.
Calvary erased a 2-0 deficit with three runs in the fifth. Sawyer Fowler doubled in the tying run after Blayne McFerren scored on a wild pitch. Caden Flowers put the Cavs ahead with a sacrifice fly to score Fowler.
Catholic-PC put two runners on in the bottom of the fifth, but a double play ended the threat. VanNoppen proceeded to retire the last six batters he faced to close out the win.
Calvary (24-15) will play eighth seed Covenant Christian (24-13) in the semifinals Thursday in Hammond.
Jesuit eliminates Byrd: The Yellow Jackets had the pitching edge in the first game of the series Friday with the Blue Jays in a 6-3 win, but the visitors from New Orleans limited Byrd to three runs in two games on Saturday to take the best-of-three series.
Byrd’s Patrick Snead pitched a complete game Friday; he allowed four hits, three runs, and struck out 10. Brooks Brossette and Dakota Futch were both 2-for-3, and Futch contributed a triple as the Yellow Jackets spread out nine hits. Byrd scored three runs in both the first and third innings and allowed Jesuit just the three runs it scored in the fourth.
Byrd was limited to four hits and one run in Game 2 as Jesuit evened the series with a 5-1 win. The Jays scored two runs in the first inning and single runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings. Byrd got two of its hits and its only run in the second inning when Zach Wilburn singled in Brossette, who had also singled.
In the deciding Game 3, Byrd outhit Jesuit 8-7 but was eliminated from the playoffs in a 5-2 loss. The Jackets found themselves in a 4-0 hole when they finally got on the board in the fourth. Wilburn doubled in Brossette with one out but Byrd couldn’t add any more runs until the sixth. Futch doubled in pinch runner Wallace Fox to cut the Jesuit lead to 5-2. Byrd (19-17) would put a couple runners on in the seventh but couldn’t come up with the key hit.
Northwood falls to North DeSoto: The Falcons battled the Griffins tooth-and-nail Friday night before falling 11-10 in 11 innings and then saw North DeSoto run away with Game 2, 14-1, in five innings Saturday.
Friday’s game was back-and-forth and was tied 10-10 after seven innings. Griffins pitchers didn’t allow a hit the last four innings; North DeSoto took advantage of a pair of walks, an error and a passed ball to score in the 11th.
Hayden Phipps was 3-for-5 with a double, Ryan Gardner 2-for-4 and C. Little doubled for Northwood.
The Griffins scored 13 runs the first two innings to knock the wind out of the Falcons in Saturday’s Game 2 run-rule win.
With the two losses, Northwood had to settle for tying the school record for wins in a season at 29-11.