Cardinal Newman falls 7-4 in first game of SCISA series

After a half inning of play on Monday night at Tucker Belangia Diamond, the Laurence Manning Academy baseball team found itself down 3-0 and set to face Cardinal Newman ace and University of South Carolina commitment Cam Tringali.

That’s a daunting task for most teams on a regular night, let alone the opening game of the SCISA 3A state championship series.

Adversity, however, doesn’t seem to faze these Swampcats – who now find themselves on the cusp of back-to-back titles.

Buddy Bleasdale had three hits, including two doubles, and he combined with Morgan Morris to drive in four runs as LMA rallied twice to beat the Cardinals 7-4 and take an early lead in the best-of-three series.

Game 2 is tonight at 7 p.m. at Joe Tronco Field in Columbia.

“It’s not over by any stretch, but we faced their ace tonight and I thought we did pretty well offensively,” ’Cats coach Barry Hatfield said after his squad improved to 21-4 overall.

“Any time you face a pitcher of that caliber, you have to be able to execute.”

Bleasdale’s double in the first scored Taylor Lee, who had also doubled, as part of a 3-run frame that got LMA back even with the Cardinals.

LMA finished with seven hits off Tringali, who was tagged for all seven runs, five of which were earned. He lasted 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts, four walks and a hit batsman.