St. Pius X walks it off in opening round win

By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com

St. Pius X’s baseball team had a tough finish to the regular season. But the Panthers bounced back in a big way in the TAPPS area playoffs Tuesday night.

The Panthers walked off Parish Epsicopal 6-5 on Tuesday night in the first round of the TAPPS division playoffs moving to 19-12 on the season. SPX advanced to take on Addison Trinity Christian in the TAPPS regional playoffs on Saturday.

Jackson Mobley had the biggest swing of the night for the Panthers, crushing a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning to send the Panther faithful into a frenzy.

Elsewhere in private school action, the St. Thomas Eagles capped off the regular season with a three-game sweep of San Antonio Central Catholic last week, winning 4-3 on April 26

LAndAn KuhLmAnn Editor

before winning 10-0 and 10-3 on April 27 to finish the regular season 20-12-1 overall and 7-5 in TAPPS district play. Jack Clinton threw a five-inning no-hitter in the 10-0 victory for the Eagles, who have a bye in the first round of the TAPPS Division I playoffs and will face the winner of Plano John Paul II (20-11) and El Paso Cathedral (11-8-2) next weekend.

Public schools

In the public school ranks, Heights, Waltrip, Scarborough, and Booker T. Washington have all punched their tickets to the playoffs, and will do battle this weekend.

Waltrip polished off a strong regular season with four wins last week, and took home the

District 19-5A crown in the process. The Rams defeated Wisdom 12-2 on April 26 and Carnegie Vanguard 8-0 on April 27 before beating Austin 11-1 and Wisdom 7-0 on April 29 to complete an electric run through the

High School Softball

district. The Rams (25-1, 17-1 district) won their final 10 regular season games, and will face off with Rosenberg Terry (1513-1) in the bi-district round this weekend.

The Heights Bulldogs put the finishing touches on a strong regular season as well, defeating Chavez by a score of 14-0 on April 28 to end the regular season with an 11-1 mark in District 18-6A competition. Jeriko Smith had two hits including a double and four RBIs in the game for the Bulldogs, while Paul Smith homered and drove in two runs of his own in the win. Heights (22-7) is slated to face Cypress Creek (9-20-1) in a best-of-three playoff series beginning at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Jersey Village High School.

Booker T. Washington had a pair of victories over Scarborough last week to complete their regular season, winning 10-0 on April 24 and 17-2 on April 29 to finish the regular season. The Eagles (14-2) will face Caldwell (12-13-1) in the bi-district round. Scarborough (9-6-1) will face Taylor (23-3-1) in a one-game playoff on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Waller High School.