| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | ||
| First Baptist Christian | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 2 | |
| St. Francis Episcopal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
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Pasadena First Baptist Christian Academy got critical hits with two outs to edge out St. Francis Episcopal 3-2 in the TAPPS Division 3 State Semifinal Game. FBCA will now meet Colleyville Covenant Christian in the State Championship Game on Saturday.
St. Francis got on the board in the bottom of the 1st. CJ Denson and Adam Garcia singled in the inning. With two outs, Sebastian Mora singled to right field and Denson scored from 2B to give St. Francis an early 1-0 lead.
First Baptist Christian Academy got a run of their own in the top of the 3rd. With two outs, Hudson Gregory tripled. Cayden Weber followed with a double to score Gregory to knot the score at 1-1. FBCA then got their first lead of the game in the 4th. Nathan Espinoza led off the inning with a bunt single. Jake Bailey sacrificed him over to 2B. With two outs Drake Olive single to right field scoring Espinoza on the hit and FBCA led 2-1.
FBCA picked up another run in the 5th. With two outs, Cesar Cisneros tripled to center field. Courtesy runner Drew scored two batters later on an infield error and FBCA increased their lead to 3-1.
St. Francis finally got something going in the bottom of the 6th. An infield throwing error put Mora on base. With two outs, Nolan Lawson tripled over the right fielder’s to score Mora. St. Francis cut the FBCA lead to 3-2.
The score remained 3-2 to the bottom of the 7th. Cisneros came out to finish what he started. With 20 pitches left on the night, he got a fly out, a ground out and line out to close the game and give First Baptist Christian Academy the win and the berth in the State Championship Game. He finished with a complete game giving up 2 runs, 1 unearned, on 5 hits and 1 walk with 9 strikeouts. He was named the THSB Semifinal Game MVP.
“That was exciting,” Cisneros stated. “That’s what we’ve been wanting all season. Ever since last season, when we came up short, we’ve been working hard. I knew I had to just keep working out there and I trusted my defense to take care of everything.”
“It’s just hard to beat somebody three times and they beat us twice in the district, Head Coach David Turner explained. “But tonight we just rode Mateo. He’s just a special guy and he will get us outs. We had a couple errors there, but then we outhit them. It was just an overall good game.”