Taylor, Londo power McAuley Catholic past Purdy

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By Levi Payton (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

After losing to the Purdy Eagles in the Class 2 District 12 championship a year ago, the McAuley Warriors watched the celebration unfold that day and, collectively as a unit, vowed to flip the script in 2017.

On Tuesday, that’s just what they did.

Powered by seniors Brendyn Taylor and Dylan Londo, the fourth-seeded Warriors scored four times in the third inning and held on for a 4-2 victory over the Eagles in the Class 2 District 12 championship at Joe Becker Stadium.

McAuley (13-3) advances to take on Galena (15-7) in sectional play at 4 p.m. Monday at Galena. Purdy finished at 15-8.

The win was especially nice for the Warriors, who dropped a 6-5 nail-biter to the Eagles for the Ozark 7 Conference title earlier this month.

“It feels amazing,” said Taylor, a righty who dazzled with nine strikeouts and two walks in 6 2-3 innings. “Being a senior and finally getting it done … they’ve beat us the past few times and there’s a fun rivalry between us.

“We enjoy playing each other but there’s certainly that grit to also beat each other.”

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

After a hiccup yielded a run in the bottom of the first on a single by Andrew Martinez, Taylor, despite not pitching much this season, yielded only three hits the remainder of the way. He struck out the side in the fifth inning and only seemed to get stronger as the game wore on.

“I told the guys you’ve got to tip your hat,” Eagles coach Joshua Hughes said. “(Taylor) did a good job keeping us off-balance early.”

Taylor admitted tweaking his gameplan some as the game went along.

“I heard their coach say ‘find fastballs,’ so I kind of went away from the fastball and stuck with the curveball today.”

Speaking of hunting fastballs, that’s just what Londo did in the third inning when he deposited an offering from Ricky Aldaba into the bleachers in left. The three-run shot snapped a 1-1 tie.

The homer, Londo’s second in as many days, spoiled an otherwise strong start for Aldaba, who surrendered four runs on six hits with four strikeouts.

“I was looking for a pitch to drive and I got it,” Londo said. “I really didn’t think it was going out, but I’m glad it did.”

“He crushed it. That was huge,” Warriors coach Jason McVey said. “That sparked us and carried us on throughout the game.”

Hughes regrets not walking Londo automatically.

“That pitch wasn’t where we wanted it and I’ll take (blame),” Hughes said. “We were unintentionally intentionally trying to walk him and we threw a fastball down the middle. I should have just held up four fingers and sent him to first.”

Things got a bit dicey when the Eagles rallied in the bottom of the seventh.

After Taylor was lifted from the game with two outs due to pitch count restrictions, Adam Humphrey, who led the Eagles with two hits, lined an RBI single into center to make it 4-2.

The Eagles later got the tying run on at second before Tommy Doyle snuffed out the rally by forcing Martinez to ground out to end the game.

“(The Eagles) are a great ball club,” McVey said. “It’s nice to finally get on the winning side. I don’t think it would have mattered what who we played, they were set on they were going to win today.”

McAuley 004 000 0 — 4 4 0
Purdy 100 000 1 — 2 6 2
Brendyn Taylor, Tommy Doyle (7) and Dylan Londo. Ricky Aldaba and Carl Hughlette. W–Taylor. L–Aldaba. 3B– Hughlette. HR–Londo.

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