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| Me pitching against El Cajon Christian |
The Calvary Lion's continued their mission to win the 62nd Annual Lion's Tournament by squeaking out a narrow 3-2 victory over the Christian Patriots in the semi-final game at Alliant University.
The game started shaky when Calvary faltered early by allowing Christian to score 2 runs in the first inning.
Starter Davey Carpenter working on short rest after shutting out the Rock two days earlier, struggled with his control early on. He walked 3 and gave up 1 hit with both runs eventually scoring on wild pitches.
Sophomore righthander Matt Hartman relieved Carpenter and was nearly perfect in relief. He completed the game by shutting out the Patriots only allowing 2 hits and walking none. He struck out 5. At one point, Hartman retired 15 hitters in a row in a fantastic outing. Through 11 1/3 innings of work this season he has yet to allow a run.
Calvary bounced back the next inning and took the lead on a controversial play that proved to be be a game-decider. Down 2-0 with two outs, Sam Hebert lined a single to start the rally. Junior Alex Nurding followed with another line single to right putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Senior Isaac Conover then stepped up and launched a deep fly to left center. The centerfielder made a spectacular effort and initially appeared to catch the ball, but after taking a step it popped high out of his glove and appeared to hit the outfield wall and he then re-caught the ball. As the Calvary runners were running around the bases the fielder held up the ball and began jogging in thinking that he had made the third out. With two outs and the score tied after Hebert and Nurding scored, Conover was sent home but the catcher was unable to hold on to the ball and Conover was safe in what eventually proved to be the winning run.
The game was shut down for 10 minutes as the Christian coaches and players debated with the umpires claiming the ball never hit the wall, but they did not prevail and the umpires ruled that it hit the wall and the play would stand as called.
Even though Conover was not even at second base when the centerfielder began running back to his dugout, he went around the bases to score without the benefit of an error and was credited with an in-the-park home run and all three of Calvary's RBI's.
There was no additional scoring as Hartman continued to shut down the Patriot offense and protect the one-run lead.
Calvary's is now a perfect 4-0 in the Lion's Tournament and advances to the finals vs.. Francis Parker. They are now 11-4 on the season.
(FYI: this is the first time in Calvary baseball history that a team reached the championship game of the Lion's tournament)
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