St. Charles Catholic left fielder Jackson Monica called a morning prayer service for his team a few hours before the top-seeded Comets took on No. 8 University High in the third game of a best-of-three Division III select quarterfinal playoff series in LaPlace on Sunday.
The Comets showed their faith and rallied from a three-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh, with Monica clubbing a three-run home run in a six-run inning to complete an 8-5 win in front of a packed home crowd.
The win sends reigning state champion St. Charles (30-7-1) to Sulphur where it will take on No. 4 Dunham in a semifinal game scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday.
The Tigers won their best-of-three quarterfinal series against No. 5 Parkview Baptist with a 4-2 Game 3 victory on Sunday.
“That’s championship baseball,” St. Charles coach Wayne Stein said. “Way back in 2018, we went to Teurlings Catholic and they put on a clinic of culture to us. Our kids have been different ever since then. They’ve competed to the end. What a finish, and I can’t say enough about my players.”
U-High (24-11) held a 5-2 lead heading into the decisive inning. The Cubs’ Cole Connor broke a 2-2 deadlock in the sixth inning with a three-run blast that cleared the left field fence. The Cubs scored their other runs on a sacrifice fly by Jake McCann in the third and an Ethan Hopkins RBI single in the fourth.
Ayden Authement drew a walk with one out to load the bases in the final inning. U-High starting pitcher Cameron Robbins then hit Hudson Heltz to score a run.
That ended the day for the senior right hander, who held the Comets bats in check for most of the game and went 6 1/3 innings and gave up six runs (four earned) on five hits with a strikeout and four hit batters. The two unearned runs he gave up came on a throwing error by center fielder Trip Singer in the third inning.
U-High pitcher Bryan Olsson came on in relief and promptly gave up a two-run single to Brayden Bertucci to tie the game at 5-5. That set the stage for Monica, who drilled his home run on a laser over the left field fence.
The junior was 0 for 3 before the three-run shot.
“Our best ball has been in the bottom of the seventh throughout the season,” he said. “We have that fight in us. This was going to be the last game at home for some of my teammates, so I knew they were going to lay it on the line. I knew I was going to have my chance eventually, and I had something to prove. I sat back on a fastball and let it go over the fence.”
St. Charles starter Michael Hotard picked up the win in a complete game effort. He gave up five earned runs on six hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Authement scored two runs and went 2 for 3 with a double, and Bertucci was 2 for 3 with two RBIs.
The Cubs also had their share of postseason heroics this season. U-High had a walk-off win in Game 2 of the series on Friday and trailed late in the second game of a regional series against St. Thomas Aquinas before rallying to win against the Falcons.
“I think our kids showed a ton of resilience and competed,” U-High coach Justin Morgan said. “This isn’t an easy place to win. They know how to win, so the fact that we evened up the series the other day and had a chance to win today. This loss doesn’t define who you are, and I’m just really proud of those guys.”
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