Historic win for St. Joseph Christian: Lions beat Lafayette on Senior Day
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) — On a sunny afternoon at Victory Field on the St. Joseph Christian campus, the Lions celebrated their seniors with a signature victory, beating Class 4 opponent the Lafayette Fighting Irish, by a score of 11-3, improving to 16-5 on the season.
“Coach Jansen has done a really good job with them; they've turned a lot of things around there and have been playing really good baseball, so we knew we were going to get a good team,” St. Joseph Christian coach Andrew McDonald said. “I think it's our first ever win against a Class 4 team, so we were really gunning for it.”
Emotions ran high as the Lions honored five seniors before the first pitch, including Nick Orscheln, who then delivered a performance that matched the moment.
“It means a lot for us and the program, like we belong here,” Orscheln said. “Just because we're a smaller school, it doesn't mean we can't compete with all these schools. It feels so good to beat them.”
The Lions struck early, and never looked back, plating two runs in the bottom of the first inning, tallying another in the second to take a 3-0 lead. Things got a little tighter, as after a wild pitch advanced runners to second and third, Lafayette’s Carter Bruce roped one into the left-center field gap, bringing in both runs to cut the lead 3-2 heading into the bottom third.
However, this was the closest the Fighting Irish got, as the Lions completely opened the game in the bottom half of the inning.
With two outs and runners on second and third, a wild pitch resulted in Hayden Riley crossing home standing up. Later in the inning with runners on the corners, Connor Wagers beat out an infield single, bringing in another run.
“You know, to have our ace on the mound, it gave us a big boost,” McDonald said. “Our bats came alive, we ran the bases well and we put pressure on them. Ultimately, I think that's what led to the victory: constantly putting pressure on.”
The rally continued despite the Lions having their backs against the wall with two outs. A ground ball from Johnston Stewart was mishandled, allowing two more Lions to score and stretch the lead to 7-2 before St. Joseph Christian added two more runs before the inning ended at 9-2.
“We were just playing a great ball game throughout our lineup,” Orscheln said. “I just need a couple more strikes, but otherwise we just hit the crap out of the ball and we've been doing that all year.”
The Lions scored in five of seven innings, while Lafayette scratched across one more run in the sixth. St. Joseph Christian will play one more regular-season game before beginning the Class 2 District 15 Tournament. Lafayette turns its attention to a matchup with Kirksville.
“We make a concerted effort to be playing our best baseball at district time, and I know every team says that, but I will lose however many games early in the season to make sure that I'm on a roll going into districts,” McDonald said. “We preach that to, you know, these five seniors, we've preached it to them for four years. They've really bought in, but they understand how important it is to have momentum going in.”
