Prestonwood Christian Steals Win to Advance to TAPPS Division I State Final

In a wild game dominated by pitching, Prestonwood Christian gets a 1-0 victory in the bottom of the 8th with a steal of home. The win puts Prestonwood into the TAPPS Division I title game versus the winner of the Central Catholic/Concordia Lutheran contest.

The starting pitchers for Prestonwood Christian and Nolan Catholic were tough on batters throughout the game. And both battled out of tough situations.

Prestonwood’s Trenton Shaw got in trouble early in the top of the 1st issuing three walks. With the bases loaded and one out, Shaw got a big strikeout. On the next batter, Shaw launched a wild pitch and the runner from 3rd attempted to score. But catcher AJ DePaulo retrieved the ball quickly and tossed to Shaw to tag the runner at home for the 3rd out.

In the third inning, Nolan Catholic again got a runner to 3rd on a couple of walks and error on a pickoff attempt. Shaw launched another wild pitch and again DePaulo retrieved the ball quickly and threw to Shaw to tag the runner out at home.

From there, Shaw stayed out of trouble holding Nolan Catholic hitless and scoreless into the 7th when he was lifted because of pitch count after two batters.

On the other side, Nolan Catholic’s Nate Hall was pitching a gem as well. Hall got into some trouble in the 4th, issuing an intentional walk to Shaw to load the bases with 2 outs. But he was able to get a pop out from the batter to end the inning. He also had runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs in the 6th but a strikeout ended the inning. Prestonwood also had runners on 1st and 2nd in the bottom of the 7th but Hall got two strikeouts to end that threat and the game heading into extra innings tied at 0-0.

In the top of the 8th, Nolan Catholic had a big threat with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Hall hit a fly ball to centerfield and runner on the 3rd ran home on the tag. But CF Tarris Murray made a perfect throw home to tag out the runner. Pitcher Louis Bussard then struck out the next batter to end the threat.

In the bottom of the 8th, Shaw led off with a Texas Leaguer single and advanced to 2nd on a throwing error. Tanner Trout came in to pinch run and was bunted over to 3rd by Will Johnson. Prestonwood put on the squeeze bunt play on the 2nd pitch to batter Bussard but the ball got away from the catcher and Trout scored with a steal of home to get the win for Prestonwood.

Bussard was the winning pitcher of the game. Shaw pitched 6.2 innings, with 0 hits, 0 runs, 8 BB and 9 Ks. Shaw was also 2-3 at the plate with a walk. He was named the THSB Player of the Game.