Replay: Brother Martin erupts in ninth inning to eliminate Tioga

NEW ORLEANS – Brother Martin has a dangerous left-handed hitter in Reece Roussel.

As a sophomore, Rousell had an outstanding season and put himself on the radar of next level programs.

As a junior, Roussel has not put up the same kind of numbers as a year ago but the season is not over. He is heating up at the right time.

With the game on the line in the ninth inning, Roussel doubled home a pair of runs to start an six-run uprising as the seventh-seeded Crusaders overcame No. 10 seed Tioga 8-2 at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium to win the Select Division I best-of-three series in two games in a game streamed live on CrescentCitySports.com.

Roussel finished with three hits and three RBI and had five hits and five RBI in the series.

“I haven’t had the best season but you can’t let that get to you,” Roussel said. “You’ve got to stay even. You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low.

In the big inning, Coey Kropp walked, Ryan Darrah singled and Frank Randol singled to load the bases. After Cole Navarro grounded into a force play at the plate, Roussel produced the two-run double to make it 4-2. Jack Lupo followed with a two-run single and it was 6-2 before Stan Wiltz added a run with a sacrifice fly. The Crusaders executed a double steal with Timmy Gabriel scoring to complete the uprising.

Brother Martin scored a run in the top of the first inning as Stan Wiltz was hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a two-out, RBI single by Cole Navarro.

Tioga tied it without the benefit of a hit in the bottom of the second. Charlie Bakies and Cace Malone walked, Marcos Arrelano advanced both with a sacrifice bunt and Christian Iles drove home Bakies with a fielder’s choice grounder.

The Crusaders (22-10) took a 2-1 lead in the top of the sixth inning. Randol doubled, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Navarro and scored on a single by Roussel.

Tioga (16-13) had a great chance to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Tyler Looney was hit by a pitch, Alex Morrison singled, Ryan Reeves was hit by a pitch to load the bases and Bakies tied the game at 2-2 with an RBI infield single and the Indians had the bases loaded with no outs but could not score again.

Jude Tingstrom went the final two innings, giving up no runs on two hits with a strikeout. Blaise Tingstrom pitched seven strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits and pitched out a bases loaded jam in both the sixth and seventh innings.

Alex Morrison started for Tioga and pitched well over 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs.

“I just think it’s just a little bit of validation of everything that we do,” Brother Martin coach Jeff Lupo said. “A lot of them played last year. They’re an experienced bunch and they’ve been in this kind of atmosphere. They really persevered. They were just resilient in the face of adversity.”

A year after being eliminated by Byrd at home in the regional round of the playoffs, the Crusaders are moving on to face No. 2 seed John Curtis Christian, who defeated No. 15 seed St. Augustine 8-5 to sweep the series two games to none. Brother Martin and John Curtis split a pair of District 9-5A games in the regular season.

“This was a great atmosphere and a great high school baseball game,” Lupo said.

FINAL
B. Martin 100 000 006 — 8 12 0, 12 LOB
Tioga 010 001 000 — 2 6 0, 11 LOB
WP—Jude Tingstrom (3-1)
LP—Patton Ferguson (2-1)
Time of Game: 3:08
SB—Stan Wiltz, Ryan Darrah, Timmy Gabriel, Jack Lupo
2B—Frank Randol, Reece Rous