Newman rallied for 3 runs in the fifth and hung on for a shutout victory over St. Mary's of Berkeley in the NCS Quarterfinals. With the win the Cardinals advance to the Division 3 Semi-Finals on Tuesday vs Bishop O'Dowd.
Newman had no hits going into to 5th but finally got to the Panthers starter Nico Laub-Sabater.
Nate Niehaus broke up the no-hitter with an RBi Single driving in pinch runner
Colin Lopez to make it 1-0. Then Niehaus stole second and scored on an error in left field off the bat of
Landon Rota. Next,
Jack Lazark singled moving Rota to third and
Dante Overholser delivered a pinch hit single driving in Rota for the 3rd run in the inning.
Meanwhile, Newman starter
Mason Lerma shut down the St. Mary's offense, striking out 6, allowing just 2 hits and no walks. Lerma would go the distance for his 9th win of the year on just 80 pitches.
The Semi-Final will be a 5 o'clock first pitch at Clyde Smith Field with the winner advancing to the NCS D3 Championship Game. The teams are familiar with each other having met back in February at Newman in a game won by the Cardinals 8-2.
On that day,
Brady Boyd and
Landon Rota each had 3 hits vs the Dragons and collected a total of 5 RBIs.
