Photo: Matt Smith
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ARLINGTON – 4 Fort Worth Christian pitchers combined to hold Lubbock Trinity Christian to 3 runs on 7 hits as the Cardinals dominated the Lions 10-3 in a TAPPS D2 baseball semifinal on Monday at UT-Arlington’s Clay Gould Ballpark.
This is FWC’s 14th state tournament appearance in program history. The Cardinals are headed to the title game for the 8th time, however, they go into Tuesday’s finale 0-7 all-time in championship games.
Gregory Smeds, Ben Rodriguez, Antonio Andujar and Blayne MacDonald were the pitchers for the Cardinals (34-6-1) with Smeds getting the nod from head coach, former MLB player Rusty Greer.
Smeds went 3 2/3 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits with 4 walks and 6 strikeouts. Andujar pitched 2 innings and MacDonald closed it out in the 7th while picking up a pair of strikeouts.
Jackson Perdue broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the 2nd when he drove in Jacob Ward on an RBI double to center field.
Trinity tied it in the 3rd on an RBI double from Cooper Young.
It wasn’t tied for long as FWC scored 2 in the bottom half of the inning. Grady Emerson, among the top MLB prospects in the country, hit a 1-out single and went to second when Braylen James was hit by a pitch.
Emerson scored on an RBI grounder by Jaxon Casselberry and Jake Parkerson added an RBI double to give FWC a 3-1 lead.
The Lions loaded the bases in the 4th, but couldn’t plate a run as Rodriguez came in and got the third out with a grounder to Emerson.
3 more runs for the Cardinals came in the bottom of the 4th, sparked by a 2-run single from Emerson, who is a senior and signed to play at the University of Texas, however, is expected to get drafted high in the first round of the MLB Draft in July.
Griffin Carney scored on an RBI from James and the lead grew to 7-1 following an RBI single to left by Parkerson.
The first 3 Lions reached in the 5th and Trinity was able to get 1 across in the inning to pull within 7-2.
Carney and Casselberry drove in runs in the FWC 5th to extend the margin to 10-2.
Young drove in Trinity’s final run with a single in the 6th.
FWC’s pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts with Smeds punching out 6 batters. FWC beat Trinity in 2 district games during the regular season 10-0 and 16-4.
The Cardinals made the state tournament in 2022 and 2023, but lost in the semifinals both times. Tuesday’s champ game appearance is the program’s first since 2019 when FWC lost to Houston Lutheran South.
Meanwhile, Greer is in his 3rd season leading the Cardinals. Greer spent more than 8 years in the majors, all with the hometown Texas Rangers, where he was a fan favorite.
