Jack Connolly is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Chandler Prep. for AZPreps365.com.

CHANDLER -- Chandler Prep  baseball walked-off St. Augustine Catholic 16-6 in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday on first baseman Colman Smith’s RBI single that dropped into center field out of the reach of the diving Sergio Cordova. 

Chandler Prep coach Martin Vilaboy wanted to see his guys “swing the bat” and they answered the call. The Titans hit .629 (18-for-29) and scored their most runs this season by a wide margin, shattering their previous high of 11.

“We swung the bat, took command and did not fall behind in counts,” Vilaboy said. “Not doing those things has hurt us in the past.”

Smith had a career night, going 5-for-5 with four RBIs, including a triple in the right-center field gap in the bottom of the first inning that opened the scoring for CPA.

“I went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts on Wednesday, and knew something had to change,” Smith said. “After I took that outside fastball for a ride in the first inning, I knew it was going to be a special night.”

Titans third baseman Ryan Hong added another run with a sacrifice fly to center field to bring in Smith and make it 2-0 after the first inning. 

The big bats in the three-four holes lived up to the billing in this game. Smith and center fielder Dominic Steineke combined for eight hits, 11 RBIs and four runs scored. 

The Titans added two more runs in the top of the second inning on three hits and a walk to go up 4-0, but the Wolves fought back with a run in the third and cashed in on a walk, single and hit-by-pitch in the fourth inning. Wolves freshman left fielder and reliever Alain Lara drove in Cordova to trim the Titans’ lead to 4-3 in the top of the fourth. 

St. Augustine bounced Chandler Prep’s ace and Dayton commit Robby Hirsch from the game after allowing three runs on 72 pitches in 3.2 innings. 

“First pitch strikes are the biggest thing for me,” Hirsch said. “I think I can keep my pitch count low if I do that, and really keep hitters off-guard.”

The Wolves couldn’t touch Hirsch in the first two innings as he struck out five of the first six batters he faced. But he cooled off after hitting Wolves third baseman Nino Tabanico to start the top of the third inning and finished with four free passes.

Chandler Prep responded in the home half of the fourth inning by batting through the order for five runs, two errors and two hit batters to extend its lead to 9-3.

The Wolves took advantage of multiple Titans errors in the top of the fifth for a three-run inning to get back into the game, trailing 9-6. 

Things unraveled for St. Augustine in the bottom of the fifth. The Titans' bats cooked up an eight-run inning on five hits to run-rule the Wolves. The rally was punctuated by a no-doubt three-run blast to left-center field by Steineke, his first home run of the season. 

What went right

Situational hitting: The Titans were humming at the plate. The extra-base hits and offensive fireworks were fun, but time and time again, CPA was able to make the right play all night. The Titans executed multiple hit-and-runs to move baserunners over, and cashed in two sacrifice flies from Hong and catcher Henry Allen.

What went wrong

Baserunning: Despite the big win, the Titans will need to be smarter on the bases going forward. They had two runners picked off and a handful of close calls. With that being said, they still swiped four bags.
 

Up next

Chandler Prep  (5-1) will take on Horizon Honors at home on Monday at 6 p.m. St. Augustine (2-9) will host Santa Rita on Monday at 4:30 p.m.