SLUH got off to a great start against Kirwood when senior Danny Favazza hit a grounder to the shortstop who bobbled the ball allowing Favazza to reach first safely. Favazza advanced to second on a wild pitch, putting him in a prime scoring position, and senior Rickie Brown made the pitcher pay when he hit a single to drive in Favazza and make the score 1-0.

In the top of the fourth, junior Nick Lang singled, and advanced to third after a bunt and a wild pitch. SLUH again made Kirkwood’s pitcher pay for the wild pitch when junior Kolin King hit a single to drive in Lang to make it 2-0.

Starting pitcher senior Gavin Obert gave up two runs in the fourth making the score 2-2. But Obert only gave up six hits and two runs through six innings, an impressive outing, keeping the Jr. Bills in the game.

In the top of the seventh SLUH got the bats going in response to Kirkwood’s runs and junior Danny LaChance scored off of another wild pitch and junior Timmy Heinlein also scored. The Jr. Bills had a comfortable lead of 4-2 going into the bottom of the seventh.

Sophomore Austin Brush came in to to relieve Obert in the last inning. He was able to get one out with two people on base before the game was delayed due to bad weather. The weather persisted long enough to postpone the game to the next day.

On Tuesday, the game resumed and Brush only had to throw five pitches to get the two outs needed to end the game and strand the Pioneer base runners.

SLUH faced the Vianney Griffins in district finals on Wednesday. Coming into the game, Vianney was ranked No. 8 by Max Preps and No. 13 by Baseball America nationally, but that didn’t faze the Jr. Bills because earlier in the season SLUH defeated Vianney 7-6, handing the Griffins their first loss of the season.

Both teams put their ace on the mound as senior Griffin Lester started for SLUH and senior Mizzou commit Luke Mann started for Vianney.

SLUH was the away team because they were lower seed, so the Jr. Bills were up to bat in the top of the first, but it didn’t last long because Mann got off to a great start, striking out the first three SLUH batters he faced.

In the bottom of the second, Vianney had a man on first when the ball was sent into left field where Lang lost a fly ball in the sun. The ball dropped, allowing Vianney to have runners on first and second.

Then, Vianney’s Sam Altobella made the Jr. Bills pay for the error as he hit a single, driving in Vianney’s first run. The Jr. Bills couldn’t stop the bleeding as they let in two more runs in the inning, one due to an error.

Still in the bottom of the second, Vianney was looking to capitalize with bases loaded, but Lester got out of the jam, sending the game to the third inning. All three runs were scored with two outs.

In the bottom of the third Lester allowed the first Vianney hitter to get on and was pulled for sophomore Adam Broughton. The first batter he faced launched one over the right field fence for a two run home run, putting the Griffins up 5-0.

“When things got tough Griffin came out and jumped right back up there rooting for his teammates,” said head coach Steve Nicollerat. “That’s what guys do and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”

Again in the top of the fourth SLUH wasn’t able to get anything started as Mann didn’t allow anyone to hit off of him.

Vianney didn’t waste any time putting up more runs in the board as Charles Cepicky cleared the bases with a double making the score 8-0. After that junior Cam Glynn was brought in to relieve Broughton.

In the bottom of the fifth, Vianney scored another run off of another error and then Vianney’s Andrew Keck hit a three run home run over the left field fence to end the game 12-0 on the mercy rule. Mann was sensational for Vianney as he pitched all five innings, only allowing one hit and walking only two batters.

“I got to give the credit to Luke Mann,” said Favazza. “He is an incredible player. He was throwing hard and was hitting his spots. He just pitched a really good game and you got to tip your hat to him.”

The team went 17-8 overall, beating many good teams like St. Mary’s, Kirkwood, and Vianney.

“We started at the beginning of the season with the goal of getting better and we did,” said Nicollerat. “Down the stretch we played a whole lot of difficult teams and the kids stepped up, playing their best baseball down the stretch.”

“I think that the Florida trip really set the tone because we were able to come so close so early on. From there it was easy because we were all playing for each other and trying to make each other better every day,” said Favazza.

“We had a good bunch of seniors this year, they were really good leaders, and great ball players,” said Nicollerat. “They enjoyed working with each other and stepping up to earn playing time. They really grew through their difficult situations because each kid had a difficult moment which they had to face and learned to grow from that.”