4th Inning Burst Propels St Thomas Catholic to Division I Championship Game

St Thomas Catholic exploded for 6 runs in the 4th inning and Donte Lewis and Jack Ward combined for a shutout to beat Antonian Prep 6-0 in Game One of the TAPPS Division 1 Semifinal. St Thomas Catholic will now meet the winner of the Trinity Christian-Addison/Concordia Lutheran Semifinal for the Division I State Championship.

St Thomas Catholic had been able to manage only 1 hit against Antonian Prep starting pitcher Aiden Diaz in the first three innings. But they were able to get to Diaz in the 4th. Logan Duplantis began the inning with a walk and Jaden Deshautelle got aboard with a bunt single. William Theroux then doubled on the first of his three hits of the day, scoring Duplantis. Anthony Equale followed up with a double of his own scoring both Deshautelle and Theroux . With one out Donte Lewis tripled scoring Equale and Joshua Caldwell, increasing the lead to 5-0. Luke Edgecomb singled to right field scoring Lewis and increasing the St Thomas lead to 6-0.

After that inning, it was all about the pitching. Lewis pitched 5 scoreless innings and Jack Ward came in and pitched a scoreless final two innings. Lewis was the winning pitcher and gave up only 3 hits with 5 BB and 7 Ks to go with his scoreless innings. Lewis was also 1-3 at the plate with a triple, 2 RBIs and a run scored. He was named the THSB Player of the Game.

“My fastball was electric today,” Lewis explained. “It felt like it was flying out of my hand. When you establish the fastball, everything works off of that. For the most part, I felt really smooth today.” On the 2 RBI triple: “I was looking for the fast ball up and as soon as I saw that fast ball up I just threw my hands and it was wheels around the bases.”

St Thomas Catholic Head Coach Adam Massiatte commented: “We didn’t play strongly against Antonian Prep during the season so to be able to come up here and play good, clean baseball is what I am most excited about.” On the big 4th inning: “The bottom of the order stepped up for us today. We’re not surprised because we have good bats all through the order. We needed them today and they stepped up.” On Donte pitching: “He’s a live arm. And when his other pitches are working for him and he has the right mentality, he can beat anybody.”

THSB Player of the Game – Donte Lewis