For six innings, the St. Anthony baseball team had all the answers in the opening round of the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs Thursday afternoon against Whittier Christian.
But after the Heralds took a lead in the seventh inning, the Saints couldn’t complete the comeback as they lost 4-3 at Clark Field.
“This was a great high school game,” St. Anthony coach Kris Jondle said. “Both teams competed all the way through all seven innings and it went down to our last guy. (Whittier Christian) got one extra base hit and you know we’re proud of our guys.”
The Heralds got off to a quick start after senior Carter Abeelen hit a lead-off homer to put Whittier Christian up 1-0.
Saints’ starter Benny Lane retired three of the next four batters to bring up St. Anthony trailing 1-0.
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Senior Robby Shepherd went right to it with a single and reached second on an error to put himself in scoring position.
Shepherd then advanced to third after Matt Gath put down a perfect sac-bunt. Shepherd then tied the game on a pop up to the outfield that was mishandled.
Lane and Whittier Christian’s Ryan Erickson both settled in as they combined for three straight scoreless innings.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Saints went on a two-out rally after Kyle Shisbey singled. Jondle then brought in Matt James to pinch run and freshman did just what he needed to as he stole second to put pressure on the Heralds.
James then took off to steal third and a misthrow ball attempting to throw him out went into the outfield and James was able to score and give the Saints a 2-1 lead after the fifth inning.
Whittier Christian answered right back in the sixth scoring two runs to take a 3-2 lead.
The Saints didn’t blink as Shepherd singled to lead off the bottom of the inning and after back-to-back walks drawn by Gath and Lane – St. Anthony looked to be in a position to take a comfortable lead.
But that wasn’t the case as the Saints tied the game after John Arnold drew another walk and Shepherd scored to tie the game heading into the seventh inning.
With the top of their lineup coming up to start for the Heralds, Arnold came in for relief.
Arnold got Abeleen out but a single and then an RBI single by Alex Valencia gave the Heralds a 4-3 lead.
The Saints continued to battle, but fell short in the final inning.
