Marist Defeats Loganville, Returns to State Baseball Championship

From Staff Reports

The No. 1 seed are two wins away from successfully defending their Class AAAA state baseball championship.

Marist makes a return trip to the championship series after knocking off fellow No. 1 seed Loganville in Game 3 the semifinals, winning 13-6 Tuesday at home. The host War Eagles dropped the first game of the series before rebounding to win the final two.

Marist will host No. 2 seed Whitewater in a best-of-3 championship series beginning with a doubleheader on Saturday. The first pitch in Game 1 is slated for 3 p.m. If the teams split the first two games, a rubber game will be played Monday at 2 p.m.

Despite the lopsided final score, Loganville challenged Marist throughout the affair. After the hosts went up 2-0 in the first inning, the Red Devils battled back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second thanks in part to a two-run homer by Cody McCance.

Then, after Marist scored four in the top of the third, McCance drove in three runs with a single. The scoring continued for Loganville following two Marist throwing errors, which allowed him and two others to cross home plate, which also included an inside-the-park homer that tied the game at six.

However, the War Eagles took the lead for good in the fourth inning after scoring three runs to break the 6-6 tie. In the fifth, Daniel Spingola and Mitchell Anderson each had RBIs to extend the lead to a commanding score of 11-6.

Marist’s offense was too much, as the War Eagles totaled 17 hits. Cole Truxillo earned the win after relieving Spingola, who started the game, in the second inning.

The War Eagles return to the finals for the second year in a row and for the sixth time since 2000. Marist has won 11 state titles in 18 previous appearances in the championship series.

Whitewater clinched its ticket to the 2011 state championship after sweeping Effingham County, 7-4 and 12, in the the semifinals.