1 of 6

St. Aloysius' Walt Andrews hits the baseball in game one of a doubleheader against Cathedral on Friday. St. Al swept the doubleheader, 11-1 and 14-9, to clinch the MAIS District 4-5A championship. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Keller Bradley throws a pitch in game one of Friday's doubleheader against Cathedral. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

Cathedral's Landon French (27) slides into second base as St. Aloysius' Will Roberson catches the throw on a stolen base attempt. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Keller Bradley throws a pitch in game one of Friday's doubleheader against St. Aloysius. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius' Sadler Lambiotte (5) tries to beat the throw to first base as Cathedral's Cooper Atkins catches the throw. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius senior baseball players Laken Bradley, Clark Hobson and Carson Smith stand with their families and coaches before Friday's doubleheader against Cathedral. (Paul Ingram/For The Vicksburg Post)

When they were backed into a corner, the St. Aloysius Flashes came out swinging and fought their way back to the top.

Needing to sweep Friday’s baseball doubleheader from Cathedral to claim their first district championship in more than a decade, the Flashes did exactly that. They rolled to an 11-1 victory in game one, and then stormed back from a six-run deficit in game two to win 14-9.

“It feels awesome. But it really goes to show you this program, and this baseball team, there’s no quit in them. They show up every single day and strive to get better,” St. Al coach Jay Harper said. “It’s really up to them to bring that winning culture back to St. Al like they’re used to. I tip my hat to them for showing up every day and not quitting, ever.”

St. Al students stormed the field after the postgame handshake to celebrate with their teammates. It wasn’t until about 90 minutes later, however, that the Flashes officially clinched the district title when Adams County Christian School beat Copiah Academy 9-4. St. Al needed a sweep of its own doubleheader, and ACCS to win at least one against Copiah, to finish first.

St. Al (15-10, 6-3 MAIS District 4-5A) won its first outright district title since 2014 and earned a No. 1 seed for the MAIS Class 5A playoffs that begin April 21. It’ll play a tune-up game against Class 3A power Prairie View (18-4), Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Bazinsky Field.

St. Al fell into its must-sweep situation by losing three games in a row — two to Copiah Academy (8-17-1, 5-4) and another to Cathedral (14-11, 5-4) — in a span of four days. It set up a wild Friday night when all three teams had a shot at the district title by sweeping their respective doubleheaders, but only St. Al was able to pull it off.

Leadoff batter Keller Bradley hit the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning for an infield single, and it ignited a rally for the Flashes. Cathedral pitcher Eli Wilson walked five batters in the inning, three of them with the bases loaded, to spot St. Al a 4-0 lead.

The Flashes added three runs in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth to win by run rule, 11-1. Keller Bradley finished 3-for-4 with one RBI and three runs scored, Walt Andrews and Clark Hobson drove in two runs apiece, and Laken Bradley and Pierson Smith both scored two runs.

Keller Bradley was also outstanding on the pitcher’s mound. He threw a five-inning complete game, allowed only one hit and one walk, and struck out seven.

“The past couple of days we’ve been stressing hard on attacking the fastball early and not chasing the breaking pitches. The past couple of games we haven’t been hitting the baseball very well,” Harper said. “We finally knocked that door down and started hitting the baseball, getting runners on and playing our brand of baseball.”

St. Al’s victory set up a winner-take-all scenario for game two, and it looked like Cathedral had shrugged off its lopsided loss. Ethan Keith hit a two-run single to help the Green Wave jump out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the first.

St. Al got right back in it with three runs in the bottom half, however, and kept on scoring. They scored four more runs in the second inning — Carson Smith hit a bases-clearing double and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch — and then three in the third and four in the fourth to take a 14-8 lead.

Laken Bradley and Andrews combined for 6 2/3 innings of outstanding relief pitching to make it stand up. They allowed a total of three runs on three hits, with four strikeouts.

Offensively, the Flashes had 12 hits and took advantage of eight walks. Keller Bradley was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and four runs scored, and his brother Laken had two hits and scored four runs. Each of them hit a double.

Carson Smith was 2-for-3 with a double and four RBIs to atone for a shaky first inning on the mound. Hobson was 2-for-3 with three RBIs.

“It just goes to show you that these guys aren’t ever going to give up. If their backs are against the wall they’re going to figure out a way to fight back and claw their way back into the ballgame,” Harper said. “We did what we were supposed to do. We had to score every single inning and that’s just about what we did. They gave us an opportunity and we took it and ran.”

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

More by Ernest

More Sports

Sports Column: Hard work, compassion on display at softball games

Who’s Hot: Whitley Parks

Warren Central clinches Region 2-6A baseball championship

VSO’s weekend tournament is a community effort