Jordan Meisner

Wildcats Walk-Off on Patriots

4/7/2017 11:20:00 PM

By: LC Sports Information - Brad Welborn

Box Score

The Louisiana College baseball team is often times referred to as the "Cardiac Cats", due to their late inning rallies and heroics. On one of the best days of the season for LC baseball, their annual Austism Awareness Game, the Wildcats showed their heart before the game started, welcoming autistic students from across the parish onto the field, and in the final inning with a walk-off win. Against the d3baseball.com #5 ranked team in the country the University of Texas at Tyler, the "Cardiac Cats" struck again with a 3-run, ninth inning rally to give themselves a 4-3 win, snapping the Patriots 13 game American Southwest Conference winning streak. The series will continue on Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. at Billy Allgood Field.

After a scoreless first inning, the Patriots struck first in the top of the second inning when a double put a runner in scoring position and a 2-out blooper just inside the line in right allowed the run to come in to score to give UTT a 1-0 lead on LC. Two innings later, the Wildcats bounced back. Back-to-back walks and a sacrifice bunt from Kiefer Moore put runners at second and third with 1-out. Garrett Parker stretched for a ball off the plate and poked it into right field to tie the game at one and put runners at the corners. Steven Pizano grounded into an inning ending double play to short preventing the Wildcats from taking the lead, but still left the inning tied with the Patriots.

Starting pitcher Charlie Waddingham was brilliant for LC in the middle innings, keeping the Wildcats in the game. From the last out of the second inning through the sixth, he retired 12 batters in a row and 13 out of 14 total.

"I told the pitching staff after the game that if you have ever seen a veteran performance from a guy, that was it," LC pitching coach Stuart Morgan said. "The first three innings of the game, Charlie didn't have his knuckleball. He threw maybe one for a strike during that time, and was behind in the count a lot. Instead of panicking and and trying to over compensate he battled and through it, and the next thing you know he finds the knuckleball and is was smooth sailing through the middle innings. That was big for us because it kept the momentum on our side and gave us a chance to get back in the game."

The Patriots finally found a kink in the Waddingham armor, with three hits in the inning, the third bringing in the go ahead run on a base hit to right. LC caught the second potential run in a rundown between home and third for the second out and got the third on a fly ball to left. After a scoreless, 1-2-3 eighth, a tiring Waddingham surrendered a leadoff single and hit a batter to put runners at first and second with no-outs. A bunt single on an attempted sacrifice loaded the bases after the Wildcats went to the pen for Evan Mativi. With the bases loaded and no-outs, Mativi got an important strikeout on a high fastball for the first out. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly to right to score a run, but Mativi got the final out on a swing and miss to limit the damage to one run.

"With the pitching staff we talk about being a "rock", not letting anything affect us," Morgan said. "Mativi was a rock for us in the at spot. He came in and executed his pitches, got a strikeout, and a fly out. We were going for the strikeout there but their guy did a good job of staying on top of an elevated fastball and then with two outs, he didn't relax and got the guy with a strikeout that had squared up a couple balls earlier in the game."

Now down by two runs going into the bottom of the ninth, the Wildcat rally began with a sharp single up the middle by Kiefer Moore and Garrett Parker being hit by a pitch. A base hit from Steven Pizano loaded the bases for the Wildcats with still no out in the inning. Sully Martin, who singled to center in his previous at-bat, found the gap in right center field on a full count pitch, plating the game tying run from second base and putting the winning run 90-feet away at third. After a line out to first, Ashtom Martin went to the plate trying to win the game for the Wildcats. On the first pitch of the at-bat, Martin took a big cut and missed, but the ball squirted through the catchers legs and rolled to the backstop, allowing pinch-runner Trey McNeal to dive in for the game winning run.

"We were really relaxed before the game," Wildcats assistant coach Matt Byrnes said. "We all talked as a team, that being the autism game that it's a lot more than just baseball. We went out there with a relaxed happy feeling because we had the students on the field with us and we played good baseball. We weren't getting timely hits early in the game but we did when it counted and we're very proud of our guys. It's a big win and we've got to carry that momentum to tomorrow."

The Wildcats and Patriots will continue their three game series Saturday with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. at Billy Allgood Field. The Wildcats travel to the University of Texas at Dallas for a three game conference series next weekend before playing four games against Centenary the following weekend, two in Pineville and two in Shreveport. Stay connected to Louisiana College baseball all season at www.lcwildcats.net, following @LC_bsb on Twitter, and liking LC Athletics on Facebook.

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