(1) Lourdes baseball prevails in 9 innings over (4) PEM for Section 1AA crown

(ABC 6 News) — A classic went down between (4) Plainview-Elgin-Millville and (1) Lourdes on Tuesday for the Section 1AA Baseball Championship.

Lourdes took the lead in the first before PEM eventually swung the tide in their favor. The game would later be tied by the 7th inning as the Eagles attempted to break the deadlock.

Nick Bowron swung a full count into center for a double, however, he’d later be tagged out after getting into a pickle during a teammate at bat. Lourdes’ Seth Haight was able to reach first base, proceeding to steal second as well. Unfortunately, he met a fate similar to Bowron after staying off the bag slightly too long, getting tagged out to end the inning.

Yet, the Bulldogs couldn’t capitalize on the momentum, leading to the top of the 8th where the Eagles’ Isaac Wenszell made his mark. With Sam Stanley on base, Wenszell hit a go-ahead RBI triple to send Stanley home, putting Lourdes in the driver’s seat. Star pitcher Joe Sperry sealed the deal by getting all three final outs, tagging the final one to give Lourdes the Section 1AA Championship, 3-2 in 9 innings.

"For Isaac Wennzell, he’s a sophomore and last year on most teams he would’ve started as a freshman," Eagles baseball coach Dave Jenson said after the game. "But our team was so deep, he didn’t get an opportunity until this year. So he could’ve gotten down and thought, ‘ I didn’t get any hits.’ And he stuck with his approach, smoked that triple to left-center, gave us a game-winning RBI. And really put more pressure on them than we had bases loaded. [I] couldn’t be more proud of our team top to bottom, I mean it really was a complete team effort today."

"We didn’t have the same guys as last year and graduated a ton as last year, so I’m glad they came together and they played for each other." Bulldogs baseball coach Scott Flattum said postgame. "So, that’s an important thing for me you want to point those things out cause kids, they can get really selfish sometimes and not our kids. They play for each other hard and they care about one another and that’s what I’m really most proud of this year."