By Terry Carter
One swing.
One key swing separated Katy from victory on Thursday night as the Tigers battled reigning Region III-6A baseball champion Strake Jesuit.
Katy scored with the help of a passed ball in the first inning and played solidly on defense for five innings to protect that 1-0 margin. Strake Jesuit hitters never lost faith as they began to adjust to Katy’s starting pitcher in the first game at Jersey Village in the best-of-3 playoff series.
Katy coaches and junior righthander Lucas Moore again demonstrated how to confuse and limit quality opposing hitters. Mixing fastballs and a solid breaking pitch, Moore notched timely strikeouts to halt several Crusader scoring opportunities.
The Tiger defense played very well with focus. Junior catcher Reese Ruderman gunned down a base-stealing threat to end one Strake Jesuit pressure tactic to highlight the Tiger defense. However the Tiger bats never came alive against Crusader ace pitcher Garrett Stratton (5-0).
Big swings against Garrett’s speed yielded mostly pop-ups and strikeouts. The few hard-hit pitchers were hit almost directly to Strake Jesuit defenders.
Still leading 1-0 after five innings, Katy got no hits in the sixth frame despite a line drive crushed to deep center field, which was caught.
The Crusaders then seized the momentum with Moore still pitching. Slugger Trey Duffield, Strake’s top power hitter, was walked. Then Shane Pellegrino did what opportunistic batters are trained to do — he got hit by a Moore pitch just a little inside. That gave the Crusaders runners at first and second with one out.
Next came the game’s decisive moment with Kade Baron. Moore — who had been tossing curveballs with tremendous movement all night — threw a backdoor curve that came over the middle of the plate. And Baron, another solid Strake Jesuit hitter, ripped it off the left field wall for a 2-run double.
Strake Jesuit leads the 3-game baseball series, 1-0, with the 2-1 victory. The Region III-6A semifinalists will meet again at 7 p.m. tonight, this time at Mayde Creek, which as a grass field.