Grapevine Faith Stifles Southwest Christian, Gets 1-0 Win in TAPPS Division 2 Semifinal

 admin  |    May 12th, 2025

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TAPPS DIVISION 2 STATE SEMIFINAL

		1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Grapevine Faith		0	0	0	1	0	0	0		1	5	2
Southwest Christian		0	0	0	0	0	0	0		0	2	1

Grapevine Faith got some key double plays and Ryan Romolo held the Southwest Christian hitters at bay as Grapevine Faith took a 1-0 win in the TAPPS Division 4 State Semifinal Game. They will now play Lutheran South in the State Championship on Tuesday.

Neither teams could get anything going in the first three innings. Grapevine Faith finally broke the scoreless tie in the top of the 4th. Luke Little was hit by a pitch to start the inning. He advanced to 2nd on a groundout. With two outs, Jace Walker doubled to left field to score Little and giving Grapevine Faith a 1-0 lead.

Southwest Christian could never get anything offensively. Grapevine Faith Sr pitcher Ryan Romolo seemed to get out of the few threats. Southwest Christian got runners to 2nd and 3rd with one out in the first inning but Romolo struck out the last two batters.

Southwest Christian got a runner to 2nd only one more time until the bottom of the 7th. With Grapevine Faith holding on to a 1-0 lead. Jordan Steele led off the inning with a single for Southwest Christian. A sac bunt moved him to 2nd and a hit by pitch put runners on 1st and 2nd. With over 100 pitches, Romolo remained in the game. It proved to be a good decision as the next batter hit into a double play to end the game and send Grapevine Faith to the Championship.

Romolo pitched all 7 innings, holding Southwest Christian to 0 runs on just 2 hits with 5 strikeouts and only 2 walks. He was named the THSB MVP of the game.

“I was just working to painting the corners, not leave anything over the middle of the plate,” Romolo described his effective outing. I knew my defense would back me up and they did make some crucial plays at the right time.The 7th inning was nerve-wrecking but I just told myself to stay calm and hit my spots and we got the double play.”

“We knew this would be a close game,” Head Coach Robert Vaughn stated. “They are a really good team and were here last year. We just tried to emphasize ‘lets get 21 outs, play catch and throw strikes.’ And we did that when we needed to. I’m not surprised at Ryan’s performance today. He’s done that all year long for us. He is 11-1 and went over 100 strikeouts for the year in this game. He’s just a tough kid and a heckuva competitor.”