Top-seeded Patriots slip past Notre Dame

CROWLEY – The top-seeded John Curtis Patriots got a little more than they bargained for Tuesday afternoon in their Class 3A regional playoff game against No. 17 Notre Dame.
The underdog Pios went toe-to-toe with the perennial power from River Ridge for seven innings before falling just short of a quarterfinal berth with a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in front of a packed house at Miller Stadium.
“For two straight games, we did a great job of battling our tails off and we did everything we needed to do tonight. We just came up a little short,” said ND coach Steve Soper, whose team finished the season with a record of 17-18.
The Pios never led in the contest, but they did have a chance to go ahead in the bottom of the sixth with the game tied at 3-3. They had runners at the corners with no outs when Sam Veillon hit a fly ball to left field. Soper made the decision to have Alex Rozas, who had singled earlier in the inning, to tag up on the play and John Curtis’ Hunter Dale fired a one-hop strike to just get the out at the plate to complete a double play.
Kyle Habetz followed with a single to right field, putting runners at the corners again, but a ground out by Brad Stoma one batter later ended the threat.
“As far as our base running, one thing that we really stress is to make the guys make perfect plays and it just so happened that their guy made a great throw from left,” said Soper of the double play. “It couldn’t have been any more perfect and if it wasn’t, then he would have been safe.”
Soper said he felt sending Rozas on the play “was an opportunity to really swing the momentum.”
“And we would have still had a runner at second base,” he said. “It just didn’t go our way right there.”
The Patriots answered with the deciding run in the top of the seventh inning when Dale doubled to lead off the inning. He eventually scored on a wild pitch.
The Pios went down in order in the bottom of the frame to end the contest.
“Good teams are going to be really good there at the very end,” said Soper of John Curtis in the seventh inning. “We just really couldn’t get anything squared up.”
Pitching wise, Pio hurler Joe Faulk did all he could do to keep his team in the game. The sophomore scattered seven hits on the day, three in the first inning, and struck out six while walking just one before giving way to senior Royce Zaunbrecher with one out in the seventh.
“Joe did a great job today,” said Soper. “All we can ask is to be in it at the end and give our guys a chance to win it and he did that and more,” said Soper of Faulk. “He just competed and battled his tail off today.”
Offensively, the Pios pounded out seven hits off three different pitchers.
Rozas had two hits, including a double and an RBI while Faulk added a double and two RBI. Stoma, Habetz, Jeff Daigle and Jacob Mooney each had a single.
“We knew that their pitcher was going to be tough so the kids did a great job of preparing all week and we really made great adjustments at the plate during the game,” said Soper. “We did a good job of looking for fastballs and putting good swings on it.”
The Patriots got on the board in the first inning on an RBI single from Jacob Bordelon and they followed up with another run in the second thanks to an error and a squeeze bunt from Mossy Mueller.
The Pios answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second inning courtesy of a two-run double to left field by Faulk.
The Patriots were able to regain the lead in the top of the fifth inning when they plated one run on one hit and two Pios errors.
The Pios tied the game the following inning on an RBI double by Rozas.
Two of the Patriots’ four runs were unearned.
“We had a few miscues and you just can’t do that in a game like this,” said Soper. “Good teams are going to put pressure on you to make plays and when you don’t, they are going to capitalize on it. Curtis did a great job of that tonight.”