An extra-innings thriller. A huge comeback. A baseball doubleheader that lasts deep into the evening. A sweep in a must-sweep situation.

It sounds exciting, but it was really just another night at the ballpark for St. Aloysius.

Needing to beat Silliman twice to keep their season alive, the Flashes did exactly that — and in memorable fashion. They scored twice in the bottom of the ninth inning to win 2-1 and then overcame a seven-run deficit to take a 12-11 walk-off victory in the deciding Game 3 of their MAIS Class 5A playoff series.

Email newsletter signup

The two games took nearly seven hours to complete and did not finish until just before midnight Friday.

“Our anxiety as coaches was through the roof. But it just goes to show you that these boys, there’s no quit in them. They believe,” St. Al coach Jay Harper said. “One of our mottos is ‘get it to the next guy.’ Pass the torch on, do what you’ve got to do to get on base, and by the grace of God we did it.”

Two weeks earlier the Flashes (17-12) pulled off the same feat of sweeping Cathedral to win the District 4-5A championship. This time it sent them on to a second-round series against Columbia Academy (24-8).

Games times have not yet been set, but Game 1 of the series will be at Columbia Academy on Tuesday and Games 2 and 3 will be played as a doubleheader Friday, May 1, at Bazinsky Field in Vicksburg.

“That’s who put us out last year and they’ve got a couple of DI commits this year,” Harper said. “But I’m a Christian and I believe in David and Goliath. They’ve got to strap on their cleats just like we do.”

Silliman beat St. Al 5-3 Game 1, and only needed to win once on Friday to take the best-of-three series.

Game 2 of the series — the first of Friday’s doubleheader — was a tense thriller that was scorless until the ninth inning. Silliman finally broke through in the top of the ninth by scoring on a passed ball, but St. Al strung together two hits and two walks — the second walk to Walt Andrews was with the bases loaded — to tie it. Laken Bradley then scored the winning run on a wild pitch for the 2-1 victory.

Bradley pitched a season-high 6 2/3 innings for the Flashes. He allowed three hits and four walks, but no runs. Freshman Evan Mallard pitched the last 2 1/3 innings, had five strikeouts and got the win.

Game 3 of the series was the exact opposite of Game 2’s pitchers’ duel. Kevin Windham drove in three runs and Cooper Reech scored three as Silliman (17-16) raced to an 11-4 lead in the top of the fourth inning.

Andrews, however, held the line with 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief pitching to allow the Flashes to chip away at their deficit. Keller Bradley hit an inside-the-park home run, Pierson Smith doubled in two runs, and the Flashes scored in every inning from the third on to head into the bottom of the seventh traling 11-10.

Pierson Smith finished with five RBIs in Game 3, and Clark Hobson had three. Carson Smith was 2-for-4 with onr RBI and two runs scored, while Laken Bradley reached base three times and scored three runs.

“When we needed a clutch hit, a guy stepped up and he got us that clutch hit,” Harper said. “It seems like that’s the way it’s been for the past four ballgames. We’ve had guys that are stepping up that have been kind of quiet through the season. In these big opportunities they are taking advantage of it.”

St. Al quickly got down to its last out in the seventh inning after the first two batters were retired. Laken Bradley and Andrews both worked walks, however, and Carson Smith was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Senior Clark Hobson was then hit by another pitch to bring in the tying run.

With Pierson Smith at the plate, the second pitch he saw got past the catcher and to the backstop. Carson Smith raced home from third and slid in headfirst without a play to score the winning run as the Flashes walked it off for the second time.

“We took advantage of opportunities they gave us. We ran with it, and at the end of the night we were one run better than those guys,” Harper said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we did what we had to do.”

Besides his players, Harper thanked St. Al’s students and fans for showing up to Key City Park and sticking with them through a long night of baseball. Students cheered on their Flashes from the first pitch at 5 p.m. through the last one at 11:47.

“Even though we were at Key City I still felt like we had a great home field advantage. The fans turned out really nice,” Harper said. “I tip my hat to the fans and the parents for bringing our home field advantage to Key City. They made it feel like a home away from home. We were there until past midnight and they were there. They dumped water on me. That was refreshing. I wasn’t mad about that.”

More Sports