St. Vincent battles to edge Upper Lake, remain unbeaten

The St. Vincent High School baseball Mustangs had to scramble but managed to escape from Lake County with their undefeated record intact last week, rallying late to defeat Upper Lake’s host Cougars, 4-3.

That North Central League II win, coupled with a 25-0 pounding of Archbishop Hanna in a non-league game, ran the Mustangs’ season winning streak to 12 straight.

At Upper Lake, St. Vincent rallied for a run in the top of the seventh inning, and held on behind the relief pitching of Trent Free to survive its toughest test of the season.

Ethan Rapoport pitched 3? innings, allowing just one hit but two runs. Free finished up, giving up an unearned run and two hits. He walked one and struck out four.

St. Vincent built an early 3-0 lead, but Upper Lake came up with two runs in the last of the fourth and added another in the fifth to send the game tied at 3-3 into the seventh. The Mustangs tallied in the top of the inning and Free made it stand good.

St. Vincent had eight hits in the game, three by Gio Antonini and two by Rapoport.

In the non-league game at Archbishop Hanna, St. Vincent scored 25 runs on 15 hits in just five innings.

Ryan Nalducci and Rapoport each had three hits and Antonini, Matt Pierson and Nathan Bermiklau two apiece.