St. Paul’s outlasts Catholic with pitching gem to earn title game shot against Curtis

When you do not score, you cannot win. When you do not give up a run, you cannot lose.

The third-seeded St. Paul’s Wolves did not score for eight innings against second seed Catholic of Baton Rouge but St. Paul’s did not allow a run, either.

Finally, the Wolves broke through for three runs in the top of the ninth inning and defeated the Bears 3-0 in an outstanding pitcher’s dual.

Junior right-hander Jacob Scherer, an LSU commit, did not allow a run in seven and a third innings, yielding just four hits while striking out four.

Austin Andrishok was just as good for Catholic, not allowing a run in eight innings. He started the ninth inning but Matthew Russo singled and Andrishok had to come out of the game due to pitch count. Brock Perry took over and the Wolves got to him immediately as William Duncan belted an RBI triple to make it 1-0. Caleb Lupo then singled home Duncan to make it 2-0 before Beau Neelis drove in the third run.

The loss snapped a 13-game win streak for Catholic (27-9).

Connor Simon came on and pitched one and two-thirds innings of scoreless baseball to earn the win. He was equally brilliant, allowing just one hit while striking out five.

St. Paul’s (23-11) advances to the state title game Saturday at 3 p.m. against top seed John Curtis Christian. You can listen to the game live on ESPN, 100.3 FM New Orleans and on the worldwide web at ESPN1003.com. The Patriots defeated fifth seed Holy Cross, 8-0, in Thursday’s other Division I semifinal.

St. Paul’s head coach Mick Nunez was elated with his team’s performance.

“It’s super exciting. I’m so happy for the kids,” Nunez said. “They’ve worked their tails off to get here and they did it. Hopefully, we can just keep playing like we’re playing and take it from there. Jacob threw lights off. After the fourth inning, I was thinking he could go the distance. The pitch count kept rising. I wasn’t sure about who I would go to second. Connor came in and he was dealing. I cannot say enough about the way they have pitched against Jesuit and Catholic.”

Nunez knows that Curtis is the favorite and the best team in the class, if not the entire state.

“We will show up and give them everything we’ve got,” Nunez said. “We’ve approached every game with that same attitude all year. They have everything, they are really good. We’ve competed well all year. It’s baseball. It’s high school kids. We’ll give it a run and see what we’ve got. We believe we have a chance if we pitch well and catch it well.

It is the first appearance in a state championship game for the Wolves since St. Paul’s won the Class 4A state title in 1999. The Patriots are looking for a second consecutive state title and their ninth overall.

“It was a special experience to be part of a state championship as an assistant coach in 1999,” Nunez said. “I would love to experience that as a head coach and more than that, I would love for these kids to experience it.”