Cathedral’s White hits for cycle in loss

Published 3:31 am Saturday, April 10, 2010

BUDE — Aaron White did all he could to try and get Cathedral a victory over Franklin County Friday night.

But all of White’s exploits at the plate went for naught when Franklin County’s Colton Laird hit a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 victory.

White’s triple in the top of the 10th inning gave the Green Wave a two-run lead and also completed the cycle. The senior also hit a single, double and home run in the game.

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But as they had done several times before, the Bulldogs came back in the bottom of the inning to steal the game away.

“We had the lead in almost every inning late in the game,” Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said. “We just couldn’t hold on to it in the bottom of the inning. There were a couple of plays we didn’t make defensively and we couldn’t find the strike zone. We didn’t play our best ball.”

Cathedral scored a run in the top of the seventh inning to take a 4-3 lead, but Franklin County countered with a run in the bottom of the inning to send the game to extras.

Cathedral once again jumped out on top in the top of the eighth inning, but the Bulldogs once again tied the score in the bottom of the inning.

After neither team scored in the ninth, Cathedral jumped back on top 7-5 after White’s triple.

But Franklin County scored a run to pull within one, and then loaded the bases to set up Laird’s monster shot off of Collin Hammons.

“Hopefully this was a wakeup call for us,” Beesley said. “We had a good week last week with a big series win against St. Al, but we didn’t show up to play this week like we did last week.”

Beesley does continue to be impressed with White’s hot hitting, as he became the first Green Wave player to hit for the cycle since Beesley became head coach in 2004.

“I’ve never coached anybody that hit for the cycle,” Beesley said. “I’m glad to see him with a hot bat late in the season. Hopefully he’ll continue that for us.”

Cathedral (13-3) jumps back into district play next week when the Wave face West Lincoln on Tuesday and Friday before hosting Centreville in a non-district game next Saturday.