St. Thomas Wins On Senior Night Beating Cardinal Gibbons 9-7

The St. Thomas Aquinas seniors were honored before the game and the Raiders would not allow Cardinal Gibbons to come in and spoil their special night.  Nine seniors started for St. Thomas Tuesday night as they won by a final of 9-7 – and they held off a late rally by the Chiefs.

“They’re good kids, they’re good leaders and that’s what were going to need, I think that has been the component driving the season for us” said Head Coach Robert Lawson for St. Thomas of his seniors, “I’m really pleased with that group, not with what they just do on the field but the type of people they are off of the field.”

Gibbons got on the board early scoring two in the first on a pair of hits.  Jack Crittenberger led off the game with a hit by pitch and Ryan Whaley followed with a single.  Anthony Cerquozzi had the two out two RBI single to give the Chiefs the lead.

The lead did not last for very long as St. Thomas put four on the board in the second on four hits.  The big hit for the Raiders came from senior second baseman Ryan Reyes with two outs and the bases loaded.  Reyes worked the count full before clearing the bases with a double to give them the lead they would never relinquish.

“That’s pretty much been our MO all season, we get down and we battle back and they battle up and we come up short” said Lawson ” So it was nice to battle back and win”

They would add a couple more runs in the third to make it 6-2.  Senior Matt Franco hit a two-run home run and would finish the night going 3-3 with a walk and 3 RBI’s.

Gibbons would have to play catch up all night as they battled to stay in the game but every time they would score, St. Thomas seemed to have an answer.  The Chiefs put up two runs in the fourth on three hits.  Tyler Norris and Thomas Woodrey had RBI doubles in the inning.

The Raiders came back with two of their own to push the lead to 9-4 as they would have to hang on to the victory in the end.  They scored on a pair of bases loaded walks to senior Jake Rudock and Franco.

Gibbons began their late push with a solo shot in the fifth from Richard Lang to make it 9-5.  They would score two more in the sixth on a two-run shot by Ryan Whaley.

St. Thomas would bring in Alec Byrd for the save but Gibbons would not go quietly after two quick outs.  Crittenberger was hit by a pitch and Whaley would walk before Woodrey grounded out to short with runners on second and third.

Senior Mike Gaither earned the victory working four innings and Woodrey would receive the loss going three innings for Gibbons.

“Just getting better, getting situational hits, getting ahead of batters on the mound, just the little things” said coach Lawson about preparing for the upcoming playoffs.

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