Two outs from elimination, Lovett rallied to defeat Westminster 4-3 in eight innings in Game 2 of the Class AA state championship series Monday to force a third game, which the Lions won 5-2 behind a pitching gem from junior left-hander Mitch Stallings for their seventh state title in baseball.
Lovett (29-10) scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 2 of and scored the game-winner in the eighth.
In Game 3, the Lions scored three times in the first inning and once in the second, and Stallings made it stand.
Stallings, who pitched well enough to win in a 2-1 Game 1 loss, was brilliant on two days’ rest in Game 3, striking out eight while allowing five hits.
Brant Wells’ two-run double highlighted the three-run first for Lovett, and Aaron Schunck’s run-scoring single in the second made the score 4-0.
Lovett scored its final run on a bases-loaded walk to Tyler Shiflett in the seventh.
The Game 2 win was the first for Lovett against Westminster (27-10) in five tries this season, and the fourth time in five games the two teams played a one-run game.
Shiflett’s bases-loaded single with two outs in the eighth tied the series at a game apiece and made a winner of Robbie Baker, who entered the game in the third inning.
Baker escaped a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the top of the fifth, striking out Westminster’s Jake Forte and Robert DeGolian to end that threat.
Baker pitched the final 5 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and walking two while striking out four. He retired the last 11 batters he faced and did not allow a run.
Down 3-1 in the seventh, Lovett’s Nick Cancelliere reached on a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Shiflett’s single to left. The ball was misplayed by Westminster left fielder Kyle Murphy, allowing Shiflett to reach third.
Westminster brought in Merritt Huber in relief of starter Conrad Cornell, and he got one out before surrendering Grant Haley’s game-tying single through the middle.
Lovett opened the scoring in the first without the benefit of a hit. Haley was hit by a pitch from Cornell, moved to second on a passed ball and reached third on a ground out by Schunck. Haley scored on a ground out by Sean Reagan.
Westminster took the lead in the top of the third, getting run-scoring singles from DeGolian and Cornell, and added a run in the third on an RBI double by McLain Bradley.
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