By Mike Moore
Sports Correspondent
A potent combination of talented opposing hitters and rotten luck twice prevented the Catholic Central baseball team from sealing the deal against one of the best teams in the conference.
The Hilltoppers dropped a pair of Metro Classic Conference games to Racine Lutheran/Prairie after having the lead late in each of them. The losses curbed the team’s momentum from the previous week, as its record dipped to 5-13 overall and 2-8 in the conference.
“We outplayed them in both games,” Catholic Central coach Tom O’Connell said. “It’s kind of the way the baseball gods have been treating us this year.”
Trailing 2-1 going into the seventh inning, Lutheran/Prairie scored four times to pull off a 5-3 comeback win Tuesday, May 20, at Beaumont Field. That inning dealt Catholic Central some bad bounces — most prominently a routine ground ball that hit the lip of the infield grass and careened over an infielder’s head.
O’Connell, who has coached high school baseball for more than four decades, said he had never seen that happen.
Nolan Girard had two triples, driving in two runs. Tegan Miles also had two hits for the Hilltoppers.
The sequel proved equally disappointing. That 3-2 defeat came after Catholic Central took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth on Thursday, May 22, in Racine.
Aided by an obstruction call, Lutheran/Prairie scored the tying run and followed it with the winning run in the sixth. With two Catholic Central runners on, Girard’s well-hit ball to left-center field was caught to end the game.
None of the runs the Hilltoppers gave up was earned. Two sophomore pitchers — starter Brandon Vandehei and reliever Jake Webley — earned praise from O’Connell. Making his first varsity appearance on the mound, Webley came on for the final two innings and allowed just one hit.
Girard added two more hits, raising his average in conference games to .407. Jake Surges scored both Catholic Central runs while going 2-for-4 with a stolen base.
Tuesday night’s game at Kenosha St. Joseph was postponed because of rain. It will be made up as part of the Hilltoppers’ home doubleheader on Thursday.
The conference schedule winds down this week. Catholic Central, a Division IV No. 4 seed, opens WIAA regional play Tuesday at home against Fall River (No. 5), a school in central Wisconsin near Beaver Dam. The winner advances to face Lake Country Lutheran, the top-ranked team in Division 4 according to the latest poll from the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association.
Although it hasn’t shown up in the win column often enough, O’Connell has noticed his team trending in the right direction.
“The kids are playing better,” he said. “We don’t have the kind of talent we’ve had in years past, but they’re starting to put it together and to have a little more fun.”
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