Central Catholic Knocks Off Top Ranked Team to Advance to TAPPS Division I Finals

Central Catholic erupted for four runs in the 2nd inning and Brody Ticer held Concordia Lutheran to just 2 runs as Central Catholic upset the TAPPS #1 ranked team to advance to the TAPPS Division I State Championship game. Central Catholic will now meet Prestonwood Christian at 12:00 PM tomorrow to determine the Division I champion.

Concordia Lutheran took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st when Sean Fitzpatrick got on base by error and advanced to 2nd. He then moved to 3rd on a passed ball and scored on a Nolan Traeger sacrifice fly.

But the dam burst open for Central Catholic in the 2nd. A single by Adrian Herrera, a walk and an error loaded the bases. Jake Garza then laid down a bunt to score Herrera and the game was tied. The Buttons took the lead on an error and scored another run on a Cinco Medina RBI single. Antonio DeJesus got in on the scoring with a RBI single as well and Central Catholic lead 4-1.

Ticer retired 8 batters in a row until Nolan Traeger hit a triple to leadoff the 4th and scored on an Alex Petrovic ground ball, cutting the Central Catholic lead to 4-2.

The score remained 4-2 going to the bottom of the 7th. Michael Herndon led off with a single and with one out Jax Traeger doubled putting the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd. After a walk to load the bases, JJ Martines came in to pitch. Martines got a shallow fly out and a pop out to end the game, giving Central Catholic their big win over the top ranked team in TAPPS.

Ticer finished the game pitching 6.1 innings with 2 runs, 1 earned run, 5 hits, 1 BB and 1 K. He was named the THSB Player of the Game.