The Spartan’s baseball team won their section game 5-4 against Trinity High School on Thursday afternoon. For what seemed like a smooth ride the first six innings of the game, Trinity nearly stirred up a come back to give them a chance at winning the game. In the end, though, the Spartans pulled out a win in front of their home fans.

From the first pitch thrown by Senior Patrick Commers, it looked like it was going to be an uphill battle for Trinity. They managed one hit out of four at a bats, SPA were up to bat. Junior Sam Petronio led off for the Spartans and got on base quickly. After this first at bat it was easy for SPA. Sophomore Ryan Kuntz got Petronio the first run after a slick hit.

It was another quick time at bat for Trinity in the second inning. And another solid offensive inning for SPA which led to another run. This was the pattern for the next few innings. Trinity got their first run in the top of the fourth inning, but by then it was already 3-1 Spartans.

By the fifth and sixth inning Trinity’s defense was starting to lock up, except for the two other runs SPA scored. Their movement was much better in the infield and there was much better communication throughout the team. This led to shorter offensive innings for SPA. There was one spot where the Spartan’s were attacking was the left field, and it was working well. Both Seniors Brendan McGlincey and Michael O’Shea hit some balls far into left field. This area was Trinity’s weak spot and SPA sniffed this out quickly. Trinity even managed another run.

Then came the seventh inning. It was looking bleak for Trinity as they were losing 5-2, meaning they had to score at least three runs to have any hope of winning the game. Commers, who was still pitching, was definitely fatigued. But this didn’t stop him from having a fairly solid inning. The first batter was taken out easily. Then Trinity built up a head of steam and started getting players on base. One run came, then more players got on base. Then another run and it was now 5-4. It seemed as though the Spartans hadn’t fully encapsulated what was going on around them, but they realized in good time. There were now two outs and the score was still 5-4. The batter hit a low ball and Kuntz hit McGlincey at first based in what seemed like a millisecond before the runner touched his foot against the base. SPA had prevailed.

The Spartans will take on St. Agnes on Saturday, May 28th at Concordia University hoping to get one step further to reaching state.