Newark Catholic wins with ninth inning walk off

LANCASTER – In a contest that seemed more like a chess match than a baseball game, Newark Catholic eventually captured Paint Valley's king and rode a walk-off single to victory.

While both teams' bats were silent for the most part, a pitcher's duel between Paint Valley's Mason McCloy and NC's Gabe Morris was taking place on the hill, but neither earned a win.

Instead, NC's Rob Engle threw 1

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innings to do so, in a 2-1 victory, Thursday at Beavers Field, sending the Green Wave into a Division IV regional final against Berlin Hiland at 5 p.m. Friday.

"(Gabe) has given us a lot of great innings this year, and tonight was no different," NC coach John Cannizzaro said. "His record this year is something like 4-2, but he's pitched two or three league games, keeping us in the ballgame, but didn't get the decision. He took us into extra innings tonight and did what we needed him to do."

The game finally ended when Engle reached base in the ninth inning thanks to a Paint Valley error before advancing on a sacrifice bunt — the Green Wave successfully laid down four in total. With Engle standing on second, senior Nick Halloy bounced a pitch back up the middle, scoring the winning run.

"We beat a pretty darn good team tonight," Cannizzaro said. "(Halloy) has been pretty hot through the last month. He started slow for us but has been one of our hotter hitters throughout the postseason. Really, the guys behind Morris (the Green Wave's cleanup hitter) have all been hot. And we're playing small ball well. We're real tickled to be coming back here in a regional final game."

In terms of scoring, the story is a short one. Neither team was able to reach the scoreboard until the bottom of the sixth inning when NC struck first.

Third baseman Tanner Lake beat out a bunt for a hit before being moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Mitch Lohr. One out later, Morris hit an RBI single, scoring Lake, and giving NC a 1-0 lead.

The Bearcats (20-6) would quickly provide an answer.

Junior catcher Teagan McFadden led off the top of the seventh with a double — just the second hit for Paint Valley up unto that point. With two outs in the inning, designated hitter Skyler Knisley became the Bearcats ' last hope.

Knisley lined it just past the glove of a diving Engle at shortstop to knock in McFadden and tie the game at 1.

McCloy allowed one earned run on seven hits while striking out three batters.

Morris threw 7

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innings, giving up one earned run on three hits and striking out 13.

Morris was 2-for-3 with an RBI, and Jack Wollenburg also was 2-for-3.