Coming off its toughest loss of the season, St. Aloysius faced a one-game, do-or-die situation for a state championship.

Their heads down after a 5-4 walkoff loss to Myrtle in Game 2 of the Class 1A finals, the Flashes needed someone to pick them up for Game 3. Someone they could trust on the mound. Someone who never, ever let them down.

Coach Clint Wilkerson played coy, saying he didn’t know who his pitcher would be for the deciding game less than 48 hours later. But, in reality, there was only one man who could take the baseball and give the team exactly what it needed.

Stephen Evans gave it to them. He was helped by the team’s offensive explosion — the Flashes scored a season-high 18 runs — but two would have sufficed. The senior right-hander capped a stellar high school career by shutting down Myrtle and clinching St. Al’s second consecutive title.

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The victory also finished off an impressive postseason run for Evans. He was 5-0 in his last five playoff starts — all complete games in which he threw less than 100 pitches — allowed a total of six runs and five walks, and struck out 41 batters.

Evans’ performance earned him all-state honors as the Class 1A player of the year and, now, his second straight Vicksburg Post player of the year award. The Hinds Community College signee is the first player to earn the Post honor two years in a row since Warren Central’s Shea Douglas did it in 1998 and ‘99.

“That’s a great honor. With all of the players that have been honored, it’s a big deal,” said Evans, who also had a career .344 batting average in five full seasons in the lineup.

Whenever St. Al has celebrated a big victory — or most any victory, for that matter — the last three seasons, Evans seems to have played a big part.

After emerging as the Flashes’ ace in 2008, he went 24-6 and averaged more than a strikeout an inning during the 2009 and 2010 state championship seasons. He got the win in nearly half of St. Al’s 50 victories over the last two years.

Since the start of the 2008 season Evans is 32-8 with a 2.16 ERA.

“I just want to win. I just love competing against good competition,” Evans said.

St. Al catcher Brendan Beesley said that kind of confidence rubs off on the rest of the team when Evans is on the mound.

“As a whole baseball team, when he’s on the mound we feel like we have the best chance to win,” Beesley said. “We’re confident with him. He knows he can do it and we know he can do it.”

Despite his dominance, Evans did have a few rough patches here and there. He was shelled in a 12-0 loss to Cathedral in March, took the loss against nationally-ranked Sumrall late in the season, then gave up seven runs on 10 hits in St. Al’s playoff opener against Edinburg.

Like a champion, though, Evans pulled himself and the Flashes off the mat and came back better than ever.

Two days after the Game 1 loss to Edinburg he threw a three-hit shutout, carrying his team to a 3-0 victory and a 2-1 series win. He gave up a total of five runs and didn’t walk a batter in his next two starts.