Ballard 5 St. Xavier 2 (7th Region Finals)

[thsrocks]

The Bruins end the Tigers 7th Region run of titles.:meh:

[thsrocks]

From LouisvilleCatholicSports.com

 

Adell's crushing blow ends Tigers' reign

 

Paul Najjar

Senior Writer

 

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Adell's crushing blow ends Tigers' reign

 

One pitch was all it took to dismantle the four-year stranglehold that St. Xavier had on the rest of the Seventh Region.

 

One pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third to Ballard’s super sophomore Jordan Adell and that’s all it took to propel the Bruins to a 5-2 victory Friday night at Pleasure Ridge Park. It was Ballard’s first regional championship since 2007 and put an unlikely end to the No. 3-ranked, defending state champion Tigers.

 

“I’m proud of Jordan because he really struggled at the plate in the last month of the season,” an emotional Ballard head coach David Trager said. “These guys have stuck together through so much.”

 

St. X (29-10) scored a run in the second inning. Avery Lane laced a double to right field, took third on a wild pitch and scored when Ballard catcher Jack McCreery’s throw bounced past third baseman Kyle Reisenberg. The Tigers scored again in the third as Aaron Grammer drew a leadoff walk, was sacrificed to second and scored on Trent Revelette’s single to center.

 

The Tigers seemingly had the game under control with junior lefty Adam Elliott throwing and strong-armed senior Cam Revelette ready to throw in relief.

 

But that’s when the Bruins (23-15-1) struck. Shortstop Matt Lewis bounced a routine ground to the hole at short and Lane booted it. Jay Poullard followed with a single and, after a strikeout, Broc Kuerzi’s infield single loaded the bases. Of Ballard’s six hits, four were infield singles to short.

 

“We battled, but we couldn’t get anything across (later in the game),” St. X head coach Andy Porta said. “Give credit to Ballard. It was that one pitch that was up and Adell did what he’s supposed to do to it. I even told Greg (pitching coach Greg Scheer) before Adell’s at-bat that ‘a walk here really wouldn’t hurt my feelings,’ just thinking it would limit the damage.”

 

Scheer went to the mound before the at-bat to settle down Elliott and remind him of the scouting report.

 

As the St. X pitching coach walked back to the dugout, Adell strode confidently to the plate and with one violent, mighty swing deposited Elliott’s high fastball over the left-field fence — about 340 feet — for a grand slam and a 4-2 lead.

 

“Sometimes, for me, I’ll only get one pitch in an at-bat, so I have to capitalize when I can,” Adell said. “I was looking for my pitch, but at the same time I wanted to be aggressive. My mindset was to go up there and take advantage of my one opportunity and I capitalized on it.”

 

Ballard starting pitcher Tyler Horsley lasted 2 2/3 innings and was charged with both St. X runs before giving way to senior Jack Dillon, a wiry left-hander who confounded the Tigers with breaking balls and off-speed pitches. And when St. X would connect, the ball seemingly would find a Ballard glove. Horsley and Dillon induced 12 groundball outs, seven of those to Lewis who made play after play for the Bruins.

 

“St. X is really good and they put the bat on the ball,” Dillon said. “When you have a defense as good as ours was tonight, it’s easy to throw strikes. Matt’s the smallest guy on the field and he had a large impact on the game.”

 

Uncharacteristic errors, physical and mental, plagued the Tigers throughout the contest. Third baseman Brandon Blaser led off the fourth with a solid single in response to Adell’s grand slam. One out later, catcher Dalton Dedas smacked a laser to left for a base hit and though Porta had the stop sign up early, Blaser hesitated around second and decided to go for third. He didn't make it..

 

“Running into that out, running through a stop sign, hurt us, but that wasn't all,” Porta lamented. “If we could have answered with one run in either the fourth, fifth or sixth then that would have put more pressure on them. We haven’t been a super strong offensive team this year, but we kept battling and had some chances.”

 

The Tigers squandered that opportunity in the fourth and loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but Dillon got Grammer on a grounder to first base to end the inning.

 

Cam Revelette relieved Elliott after the grand slam and pitched 3 2/3 innings of two-hit ball, allowing a run in the bottom of the sixth after a single, stolen base and an error brought home Andrew DeLeon to end the scoring.

 

For four straight seasons and even this year, St. X has been among the most fundamentally sound teams in the state and rarely, if ever, beat itself. The sheer volume and depth of the Tigers' terrific pitching staffs through the years erased mistakes and always kept the team within striking distance of a win. But this time those fundamentals escaped them in critical situations. Something the Tigers and their fans had not been used to seeing.

 

Some anxious at-bats, a few misplays in the field, one elevated pitch and the reign comes to an end.

 

“It’s a strange feeling,” Porta said of walking off after a regional playoff game without a trophy. “But they’re a great group of kids who won a state championship last year and regional championships in the last four. But one game is not going to define their careers. Yes, it hurts for a while, but in the long run these guys are going to look back on the positives: the wins, the experiences, the friendships and the camaraderie they formed from the countless hours of work they’ve put in to be successful.”

[rxjp]

Congrats to a great group of underrated and underestimated kids and to Coach Trager who believed in this team's potential from day one.

[LongTimeReader]

Tough loss for the Tigers, but what run they had over the last 4-5 years in the 7th region tournament.

[retropop]

Go Bruins!!!