Late inning rally falls short for Indians in district final

St. Vincent reached the district final using some late inning magic, but eventually that magic ran out. The third seeded Indians brought the winning run to the plate, but it wasn’t meant to be as St. Vincent fell to top seeded Crystal City 6-4 in the Class 2, District 4 title game on May 18 at Veterans Memorial Field.
It is the Hornet’s second straight district title, after winning four games total from 2017-2019.
“It wasn’t the ideal finish,” St. Vincent baseball coach Corey Sauer said. “They fought tooth and nail all the way to the end and I can’t say enough about the effort. The team could have laid down in the last inning, but we scored a run and got guys on base.”
It looked like it would be St. Vincent’s day right from the start when Trevor Moonier blasted his second home run of the season over the left field wall in the first inning to give the Indians a 1-0 lead. Moonier is the only Indian to hit a home run this year.
“When the second batter of the game leaves the park, it was a great way to start the game.” Sauer said.
Crystal City (10-7) responded in a big way on the bottom half of the inning. The Hornets loaded the bases and Nolan Eisenbeis cleared them with a double to right field, that gave Crystal City a 3-1 advantage. Eisenbeis went 2-for-2 with three RBI in the game.
“Sometimes you have to give the other team credit because they have some very good hitters over there,” Sauer said.
Much like they did in the district semifinal against Brentwood when St. Vincent scored two in the final inning, the Indians had a response. Grant Abernathy served a single to right field that scored a pair of runs to tie the game after Jacob Kapp reached on a walk and Simon Barber reached on an error when a low throw pulled the Hornets first baseman off the bag.
Abernathy had one of the Indians’ five hits on the day as Moonier, Christian Schaaf, Kaden Kassel, and Lucas Schilling had the others.

With the Indians back in the game, junior pitcher Liam Krauss battled for much of his outing. Krauss pitched 4 1/3 innings gave up six runs (four earned), on seven hits, three walks and seven strikeouts. Abernathy relieved Krauss in the fifth and recorded three strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.
Sauer was proud of how Krauss pitched through some tough spots.
“He got ahead of hitters and battled through some scary situations,” Sauer said. “He did exactly what you want a guy to do in this type of game and he kept us in it.”
None of those situations were tougher than in the fifth inning when the Indians had a pair of passed balls and a pop-up than when awry on the infield. The Hornets took advantage with three runs in that inning to provide themselves the decided 6-3 advantage.
“That wasn’t necessarily our brand of baseball, but that’s the game we play and things like that will happen. It’s how you respond that determines what kind of team you are.” Sauer said.
What kind of team are the Indians? As Sauer said many times this spring they are one that fights until the end.
Kassel doubled to start the inning and Schilling sent one to the wall for a double to score Kassel. Jacob Seabaugh walked to set up runners on the corners, before a fly-out to center ended St. Vincent’s season.
The team will graduate three seniors (Schiiling, Aiden Kirn, and Jacob Kapp) from this year’s squad.
“They are all leaders in every sport they play,” Sauer said. “Lucas is the only senior that just plays baseball and he took a leadership role right off the bat. It’s a senior class like that, which helps a fairly young team grow.”
That young team will return a key core that includes six of the top seven hitters that finished 11-7 and reached the district title game for the first time since 2017.