ALLIANCE, Ohio  — The Catholic baseball team looked to get off on the right foot in the NCAA Tournament on Friday afternoon, taking on the hosts for the weekend Mount Union. In a back and forth slug fest, the Cardinals offense came up with six runs in the final two innings, five of which came in the ninth, to hold off the Purple Raiders and came away with a 11-10 victory to advance into the winner's bracket. 

The Cardinals got off to a fast start in the top of the first inning after Steve Thomas led things off with a single into right field. Two batters later, Mitchel Johnson notched his first RBI of the game on a base-hit to center field to score Thomas and Sammy Burman tacked on another run with an RBI groundout to second. Zach Burton pushed across the final run of the inning with a line drive single into left field to score Dante Pozzi to give Catholic a quick 3-0 lead.

Joe Marini joined in on the early offensive barrage as he launched a two-run homer to right center field to extend the lead to five on his fourth long ball of the season. The lead would not last long however for the Cardinals as the Purple Raiders scored five runs on five hits in the bottom of the second to tie the game back up at five.

After Mount Union took the lead 6-5 in the bottom of the fourth, Cody Bosak helped steady the ship on the bump for Catholic, retiring seven of the last eight batters he faced to get through six innings.

The Cardinals went five innings without scoring before finally breaking through to tie the game in the top of the eighth. Johnson led the inning off with a towering solo home run to center field for his team-leading 11th on the season to once again pull the game even. 

Catholic once again erupted at the plate in the top of the ninth, bringing five runs to the plate to take a comfortable lead with just three outs to get. Matthew Fisher and Jack Elwell each drew walks and Thomas followed up with a single to left field to load the bases with just one out. Marini brought home the first run on a sacrifice fly to left field to give the Cardinals the lead back. Pozzi and Burman proceeded to rip back-to-back two-out two RBI hits to give Catholic an 11-6 lead.

Despite the Purple Raiders scoring four runs in the bottom of the ninth, three of which came on a three-run homer to left field, Jake Kenney came into the game a punched out the only batter he faced to earn his fourth save of the season and give the Cardinals an 11-10 win in the first game of the regional. Catholic is now 28-16 on the year and the win extended its winning streak to 11 games.

Inside the Box Score

• Along with his homer, Johnson finished the day 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI and three runs scored. He is now tied for third for the most home runs in a single season in program history with 11. Johnson now has three long balls in his career during the NCAA tournament.
• The 11 runs scored by the Cardinals are tied for the fourth-most the program has ever scored in an NCAA Tournament game. It is also just the fifth time in program history that the team has scored 10 or more runs in an NCAA Tournament game. 
• Mac Meara was solid out of the pen for the Cardinals to earn his first win of the season. He tossed two scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts and retired all six batters he faced to earn himself the win.

The Cardinals will next play the top-seed in the pod, Rowan, who defeated Grove City 9-1 earlier on Friday. The game will take place tomorrow, May 17 and first pitch will be at approximately 12 pm.