Pios rally past Union Parish

FARMERVILLE – For the first six innings Thursday, Class 3A’s No. 17 seeded Notre Dame Pioneers struggled to get anything going offensively against No. 16 Union Parish.
The Pios (17-17) had just three hits, had stranded 13 runners and trailed 4-1 through the first six frames of their playoff opener.
But then, with their backs against the wall, the Pios finally put it all together.
The Pios collected five hits in the top of the seventh and rallied from a 4-1 deficit to slip away with a 5-4 victory.
The victory sends the Pios to the regional round where they will play host to No. 1 John Curtis, likely on Tuesday.
“We just kind of struggled through the first six innings,” said ND coach Steve Soper. “We just were having problems getting that one hit to kind of break it open. We left the bases loaded twice, first and third another time; we were just lacking that one hit to put us over the top.
“Then in the seventh inning, something clicked and we just kind of turned it on.”
Union plated three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a 1-1 tie and the hosts looked to be well on its way to a victory in front of a near capacity home crowd.
Fortunately for the Pios, that wasn’t the case.
Jacob Mooney started the Pios’ rally with a leadoff single in the seventh inning and Jeff Daigle followed with a run-scoring double. Joe Faulk then singled with one out and Sam Veillon reached base on an error that allowed courtesy runner Taylor Faulk to score. Kyle Habetz recorded an RBI single to tie the game before Brad Stoma came through with the eventual game-winning hit, a ground-rule double to left field.
“We preach about playing until the very last pitch and there really isn’t a better example of that than what happened tonight,” said Soper. “It would have been very easy to start feeling sorry four ourselves, but within just a half of inning, we were able to just keep battling at the plate and we found a way to get it done.”
Royce Zaunbrecher, who started the game on the mound, walked the first batter in the bottom of the seventh and was lifted for Joe Faulk, who recorded three straight outs, including a strikeout to win the game.
“Royce did a great job of keeping us in the game,” said Soper of Zaunbrecher, who scattered eight hits and struck out four. “He battled his tail off on the mound and gave us everything he had. He had a rough inning in the sixth, but we were able to pick him up
“And then for Joe to come in with the tying run on first base and to really just close the door was big.”
Daigle and Mooney led the Pios offensively with two hits each while Stoma, Habetz, Joe Faulk and Jacques Thibodeaux each had one.