IMMACULATA, PA – Neumann-Goretti’s baseball team has made a habit out of winning baseball championships.

   Heading into Saturday afternoon’s Catholic League final against St. Joseph’s Prep at Immaculata University, the Saints had won four of the past seven titles.

   Make it five out of eight.

 Taking full advantage of what can only be described as a major Prep meltdown, the Saints defeated the stunned Hawks, 3-2.

   While the Saints indeed discovered a way to win, the Prep helped them immensely. With the Prep leading, 2-1, in the bottom of the seventh, senior Nick D’Amore led off with a walk – the first freebie of the day and only the third base runner (one walk and one error) allowed by junior Prep pitcher Colin Scanlon. Looking to bunt, junior Jarred Healey’s sacrifice was bobbled for an error, putting runners on first and second.

   After sophomore Aidan Baur bunted too hard and it resulted in a force out at third, senior Lou Testa walked to load the bases. With Neumann-Goretti’s dugout doing everything humanly possible to annoy Scanlon, sophomore Joe LaFiora was plunked by a pitch that scored Healey with the tying run.

With senior Ethan Pritchett at bat, a wild pitch enabled Baur to race home with the winning tally.

   So, in summary, the Saints scored two runs without even reaching the pitcher’s mound with a single swing.

   “We never stopped believing,” said sophomore reserve RJ McGettigan “We were down by a run but we believed we would get it back in the last inning. It’s not hard to believe in our team. As long as we are determined, we’re alright. Like today. These guys came too far to lose.”

   Neumann-Goretti (7-5 regular season, fifth seed) and the Prep (6-6, seventh) were both underdogs heading into the post-season. For the first time in Catholic League history, all four underdogs forged victories in the quarterfinals, with the Prep shocking second-seed Archbishop Wood, 6-4, while Neumann-Goretti ousted fourth-seed Roman Catholic, 2-1, in a rain-shortened affair. In the semifinals, SJP defeated Cardinal O’Hara, 14-9; N-G bested Bonner-Prendergast, 9-3. 

In the final, the Saints appeared destined to win the game after one inning. In the top of the first, the Prep had runners at the corners and one out, and a pop fly resulted in a single, but the runner on third froze – perhaps blocked by a converging infielder and outfielder – and the Hawks ended up getting nothing across after the next two players struck out.

   In the bottom of the first, the Saints took a 1-0 lead on a dropped pop up between the pitcher’s mound and home plate, a sacrifice bunt, and a sacrifice fly by D’Amore. It stayed that way until the Hawks plated two runs in the top of the fifth inning, highlighted by senior Keith Flaherty’s run-scoring drive to left field that was dropped – it arguably could have been scored a double – and a grounder to first base by junior Jeff Manto that brought home senior john Coppola with the lead run.

   “It wasn’t where we wanted to be,” said Testa. “We played like we were pressing in the beginning, but we settled down. I had a feeling we we would win all along.”

   The Saints began the spring with a league records of 1-3 and 2-5, but three of those losses were by one run and another was by two runs. In other words, their record was misleading. Still, the Saints learned how to improvise offensively, and in many ways, their win over the Prep in the final reflected that. 

   “It doesn’t matter how you win, just as long as you do,” said Baur.

   Baur provided a reason why baseball is considered such a great game; one never knows when his moment – for good or for bad – will arrive. His three at bats included two strikeouts and a flubbed sacrifice bunt attempt. And yet, he ended up scoring the winning run on the strength of both smarts and hustle.

   “Definitely not the kind of game I wanted to play,” he said, “but with the way it turned out, I’ll take it every time.”

(John Knebels can be reached at jknebels@gmail.com.)