The last inning of St. Anne’s-Belfield’s baseball season was quite possibly its finest. First baseman Josh Gibson’s tag to rob Paul VI of a leadoff runner to start the eighth inning was only a sign of what was to come for the Saints. Starting pitcher David Spinosa, who was on short rest but still some how throwing in the eighth with his pitch count well under 100, earned his eighth strikeout of the game for the second out. Brian Yeagle made a diving grab in left field to earn the third out in a tie ball game. STAB couldn’t wait to get the to plate, and it had its strongest hitter leading off in Kevin White.
“I don’t believe in luck or chance,” White said of how it all happened. “I believe in purpose and providence. I feel as though we were meant to be here and it was meant to happen this way.”
White, whose grand slam brought his team from behind in the sixth inning in the VISAA Division 1 semifinals against Cape Henry Collegiate to win, still had heroics in store. The senior catcher finally saw a pitch he liked — something that the Panther’s didn’t offer him all game until then — and he belted it to centerfield where it bounced off the wall at 348 feet. By the time the ball was in White was standing on third base. Yeagle, fresh from his inning ending catch, provided exactly what his team needed, a bloop single and with White hauling home all that was needed was for Yeagle to touch first base. That’s exactly what happened to give the Saints their first state title since 2006 with a 3-2 win in eight innings in the championship game.
“That was a great high school baseball game,” Swanson said. “Both teams made a lot of plays, both team’s pitchers threw well — their reliever (Ben Garner) was dominant. David was just great. It was a great game. Kevin got a hit, Brian got a hit. I love these seniors we have. They’re wonderful. I’m happy they won, I’m sad they’re leaving. I tried to talk them into staying another year but none of them will do it, they all want to go to college.”
While the defense shown in the top of the eighth and the hitting displayed in the bottom certainly stole the show, there was still little doubt that the star of Saturday’s game was Spinosa. The Columbia bound hard throwing righty threw five innings on Wednesday and pounded the strike zone to keep his pitch count remarkably low — 89 total after eight innings. He gave up just three hits in the game and walked only one batter. The two runs he allowed were both unearned and he sat down the last seven batters he saw.
“I felt fine all game and I think that was mostly because of adrenaline,” Spinosa said. “I was really pumped up to start, but I calmed myself down as the game went along. Winning this was intense, but you can’t ask for anything more. While you’re in it you’re just thinking ‘Oh my god, we’ve got to get more runs. Wait, we can’t give up any more runs.’ It was crazy, but it couldn’t have gone any better in the end. ”
The Panther’s took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second after Thomas Beauchamp reached first on an error and was driven in on an RBI single from Brian Robbert. That hit and Yeagle’s walk off were the only two times runners scored on hits.
After a bases loaded with zero outs yielded no runs in the second thanks to a 4-2-3 double play and ground out in the second, STAB was able to equalize the game shortly after White was walked with one out in the third. White stole second. Took third on a passed ball, then took home on a wild pitch.
In the bottom of the fifth the Saints took the lead 2-1. Sheldon Shifflett drew a one out walk and White was walked for the third consecutive at bat. On a pop-fly from Yeagle, Shifflett was able to tag up and get to third. With two outs, Spinosa grounded to short, but reached first base safely on an errant throw that drew the first baseman off the bag. He still had to dodge the tag on the play and did so narrowly. Shifflett scored easily on the frantic play.
Paul VI tied the game back up in the top of the sixth after Richard Mancari led the inning off with a single. After a little small ball first to move him around the bases, Mancari took home thanks to a wild pitch and the game was tied again, now 2-2.
Both teams came up empty in the seventh, and it was all STAB in the eighth. As he approached the plate to start the bottom of the last inning, White locked in on his job.
“Everything was blank, it was just me and that ball,” said White, who missed much of the season because of a hand injury. “If it was white and moving I was going to hit it. I owed it to my teammates because they have battled their way through the whole season. It’s just a great team, a special team and a special ending. It’s emotional.”
After the big triple, the Panthers tried to appeal to the umpires that White might have missed second base. Swanson, in his own way, completely understood the move.
“I think they checked second because they just assumed he ran straight across from first to second,” the coach joked. “I’ve never seen a kid run that hard.”
With the appeal quickly turned down, it was simply an afterthought that with White on third and no outs, the game was nearing its finish. Yeagle made sure that the STAB fans and his teammates didn’t have to wait but a few pitches for that to happen.
“As soon as Kevin got on I knew what my job was,” Yeagle said. “I needed a deep fly ball, something like that. First pitch was a changeup out and so I knew I was getting a fastball. He ran it in on me a little but I got just enough to pop it over the second basemen because the infield was in.”
On the day, Yeagle was the only Saint with multiple hits and went 2 for 4 with the game winning RBI. White finished 1 for 1 with two runs scored, two stolen bases and three walks. Shifflett was 1 for 3 with a run scored. Spinosa had an RBI.
For the eight Saints seniors, the victory was long overdue in their eyes. As juniors they earned the top seed in the tournament last year but fell in the semifinals. That storyline had become tired. They came into this season determined to do more.
“They first couple of years, when we were freshmen and sophomores, we came so close but would get knocked off in the semi’s or quarter’s,” White said. “Last year we were the favorites and got knocked off in the semifinals. It was one of those games where nothing went our way so it was hard to swallow. This year we had that chip on our shoulder to give us that extra drive, that extra push.”
This is the fifth state championship for St. Anne’s dating back to 2002 when it earned its first, fittingly enough in walk off fashion.
