VICKSBURG &045; A whale of a barnburner at Bazinsky Field between defending 1A state champion Cathedral and upstart St. Aloysius went down to the final at-bat.

Catherdal relief pitcher Jeremy Davis induced a ground-ball comebacker to the mound to get Johnathan Longmire and end a nail-biting 9-8, extra inning affair.

Cathedral, which came into the game with a four-run cushion over St. Al, won the Division 7-1A title with the hard-fought contest. The Flashes, fielding a lineup featuring several seventh- and eighth-graders, gained plenty of respect.

&uot;They really outplayed us on the field,&uot; said Cathedral coach Craig Beesley. &uot;They have a scrappy team and we just couldn’t put them away. We had a two-run lead in the seventh and they came back, then we have a three-run lead with two out in the eighth and still couldn’t get them out until we got a ground ball on the last guy.&uot;

Flashes coach Clint Wilkerson was extremely proud of his team and livid at the calls from the home plate umpire. Wilkerson was ejected in the top of the eighth after Davis broke a 6-6 tie with a two-run single off a 1-2 pitch from St. Al’s Andy Wiles.

&uot;My team has no quit in them,&uot; Wilkerson said. &uot;They refuse to lose.

&uot;We had that game, but a couple of bad calls went against us. It’s shame for that to happen in a game of this magnitude.&uot;

The Flashes (11-7, 6-2) showed their grit by rallying twice in the game to erase multi-run leads and nearly did it again in the eight after trailing 9-6.

Catherdal took a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the fourth following a solo home run by Charlie Lane. St. Al made its first comeback with three runs in its half of the fourth. Marsh Willis tripled in two runs and then tied it on Curtis Robertson’s single up the middle.

The Flashes then grabbed the lead at 4-3 when Blake Tidwell drove in Ryno Martin-Nez with a hit to left. This was the first of three, late-inning RBI hits from Tidwell.

Cathedral (19-2) tied it at 4-4 in the sixth when Chris Rasco drove in Zack Calhoun with a single up the middle.

The Green Wave then appeared to take control with two more runs in the top of the seventh when Lane doubled in Preston Hicks and Drew Burns followed with a perfect suicide squeeze to score Davis.

But back came the Flashes. Jordan Muirhead got his first hit of the game with a single and Martinez walked. That was all for CHS starter Patrick McDonough.