Monday was Senior Day for the St. Pius X baseball team, hosting Bishop DuBourg on the Lancers’ spanking-new diamond, Sapaugh Field.
Seniors Brennan Ervin, Gunnar Hosay and Jayden McGrath were honored before Ervin threw the first pitch to batterymate Hosay. McGrath started at second base.
All three were catalysts in a 10-0 walk-off shutout that ended in the sixth inning on the 10-run mercy rule. St. Pius improved to 9-10 with five games left in the regular season. DuBourg dropped to 4-8.
Ervin gave up a leadoff double to Nick Stritzel to start the game, but left him stranded. He also walked the first two batters in the second inning but struck out the next two and got out of the inning with a groundout. In the third he pitched around a single and a walk.
“My curveball was there; my fastball worked,” said Ervin, who pitched all six innings, allowed three hits and three walks and struck out 11.
“He’s a team-first guy who will do whatever it takes to get it done,” said Lancer head coach Ed Moreno, the former Hillsboro activities director who replaced Tony McNabb as head coach earlier this season. Moreno had been an assistant to McNabb.
“This new field means a lot to (Ervin),” Moreno added. “He’s given us his heart and soul for four years. After the first inning, he struggled in the second and the third when his pitch count got high. But he started spotting his pitches and he finished awesome.”
St. Pius batted around for a 6-0 lead in the first inning. Cavalier hurler Brendan Crowe hit Cooper Horvath and Cayden Payne with back-to-back pitches before the real fun began. Benj Smith, Kam Lebon and McGrath singled, Hosay and Ervin stroked doubles and Ray Geiler reached on an error as St. Pius turned its new field into a paradise for base runners.
Stritzel relieved Crowe in the second and produced a scoreless inning. But in the third he issued two-out walks to McGrath and Noah Smith and Ervin drove in McGrath with a double to make it 7-0.
Ervin is the team leader with a .476 batting average, 11 stolen bases, two home runs and nine runs batted in.
“I just want to put it in play and keep the strikeout count low,” he said of his approach at the plate.
In the sixth, Payne, Chase Papin and Hosay singled off reliever Harrison Newcombe and they all came home on another single by McGrath, producing the 10-0 final score.
Payne can take some pain. The junior infielder leads the team in hit-by-pitches with seven and has kept his on-base percentage at or above .400.
“Cayden Payne is someone to watch,” Moreno said.
The win followed a tough week in which the Lancers suffered a pair of road losses, 10-2 at St. Francis Borgia of Washington and 7-5 at Clayton, sandwiched around a 6-1 victory at Ste. Genevieve on May 2.
At Clayton, the Lancers led 5-0 going into the sixth inning, but after a rain delay, Clayton charged back to score seven runs in the bottom half and hold St. Pius scoreless in the seventh.
Lancer starting pitcher Smith was working on a perfect game before the rain delay, but six walks in the sixth were his undoing. Geiler pitched a third of an inning in relief.
St. Pius jumped on Ste. Gen for four runs in the first as Hosay delivered a two-run single. The pitching combination of Ervin and Payne allowed the Dragons three hits and four walks. Horvath had two hits, including a double, and scored two runs.
“That was the best game we’ve played all year, a total team effort,” Moreno said. “Ste. Gen had just won their conference title. We carried that momentum into Saturday against Clayton. We went into the sixth inning with a perfect game and it started pouring rain. No excuse, but we gave up seven runs in the sixth.”
Horvath is one of 13 freshmen on the St. Pius varsity roster and starts in right field. Shortstop Noah Smith and left fielder Drew King also are starting as freshmen.
The independent Lancers played Sullivan (13-9) on Tuesday, after the Leader deadline, visit
Veritas Christian Academy of O’Fallon (8-7) today (May 8) and host Cape Girardeau Central (11-9) on Saturday. They close the regular season with road contests May 12-13 at Fredericktown (14-5) and Farmington (15-5).
St. Pius will play in the Class 3 District 3 tournament starting May 17 at West County High in Park Hills. The district also includes Arcadia Valley (3-12), Jefferson (8-9-1) and Kingston (6-10). At 19-2-1, the host Bulldogs are the likely No. 1 seed.
“Looking at the teams in our district, I think we have a good chance,” said Ervin, who as a freshman was a member of the last Pius team to win its district, in 2022. “We’ll try our hardest.”