Lake Catholic junior first baseman Micah Nytrae stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie game with two on and one out against South on April 5 on Andrews Osborne’s turf field looking for a fastball. The first pitch from South’s Aidan McNamara was outside for ball one. Th e second one Nytrae fouled off. The third pitch was just what Nytrae was hoping for — a fastball in the strike zone. Nytrae swung, connected and cracked a line drive that hit the left-field fence. Junior Brayden Mann sprinted home from second base, and the Cougars celebrated a come-from-behind, 5-4, walk-off victory. PHOTOS: South vs. Lake Catholic baseball, April 5, 2025 Lake Catholic’s two college-bound senior standouts, Patrick Radigan (Ashland) and AJ Trobenter (Tri-C) hit home runs, and a two-run rally in the bottom of the seventh propelled the Cougars to a memorable win on an overcast day. “I was looking for fastballs,” Nytrae said. “He threw me an 0-0 curveball, and I wasn’t a fan of it. Then he threw me a fastball up high that I choked up to get to it, and fouled it off. I got lucky it fouled out (of play). “Then I just took a deep breath and let the game come to me. I let that ball travel and hit it into the gap.” @LCCougarBASE junior Micah Nytrae, who hit two doubles, including a walk-off game-winner in the bottom of the 7th, talks about Lake Catholic’s 5-4 win over South pic.twitter.com/7uicYylDwI — Jay Kron (@TownCenter2) April 5, 2025 Lake Catholic forged a 3-3 tie from a 3-1 deficit, and fell behind again by a run before the walk-off rally in the bottom of the seventh. It’s just the type of grind-it-out win that has characterized the early season for the Cougars, who improved to 3-0. “It’s something new for us, hitting the ball out of the park,” Lake Catholic coach Brian Leroy said of the Cougars’ power display. “Patrick Radigan and AJ Trobenter have been doing it for us for a long time, so I expect them to put good swings on it. “Micah was due, he had a great day today. I think we went through my whole lineup, 14, 15 guys we used offensively, defensively, and (pinch) running, and it was a great team win.” @LCCougarBASE Coach Brian Leroy breaks down Lake Catholic’s 5-4, come from behind walk-off win over South pic.twitter.com/YjCBXPkIez — Jay Kron (@TownCenter2) April 5, 2025 South, which slipped to 0-4, has had a tough start to the season against a challenging schedule. But the Rebels got out to a quick start in this one. Senior Brady Namestnik drilled a two-out, two-run double for a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Lake Catholic cut its deficit in half in the bottom of the second. Nytrae doubled with one out, and senior Shea Sievers walked. Radigan followed by lacing a double to left to bring in Nytrae. South senior starting pitcher James Miller struck out the next batter, then induced a grounder to third. Sophomore Luke Jensen made a brilliant play on the ball, diving to his right to spear the grounder, and getting up quickly to fire the ball to first to get the third out and strand two runners. The Rebels extended their lead to 3-1 in the top of the fourth when Namestnik, who made a great play to run down a fly ball in left-center in the previous inning, led off with a single for his second hit, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a sac fly by Senior Gio Guerreri. Lake Catholic answered in the bottom of the fourth when Radigan crushed a two-out home run over the left-field fence to cut it to 3-2. The Cougars tallied again with two outs in the bottom of the fifth on a single by junior Brayden Mann that plated junior Tyler Rhibar to tie it up. Miller led off the sixth with a triple off Radigan, on in relief of Sievers, who had given up three runs on four hits and a walk through five innings while striking out six. Radigan got two outs on a groundout and strikeout, but junior pinch-hitter Will Burge singled in Miller to give South a 4-3 lead before being picked off first for the third out. South senior Nolan Hayek worked around a walk and an error in the bottom of the sixth to keep the Rebels in front, and sophomore Nick Orgovan tripled with one in the top of the seventh, but Radigan struck out three batters, the latter two leaving Orgovan stranded. Trailing, 4-3, Lake Catholic led off the bottom of the seventh with a booming double by senior Caden Boyes, but Boyes was thrown out by Namestnik trying to stretch it into a triple. Trobenter, who had thrown out a runner trying to steal second from his catcher position earlier, launched a first-pitch, solo home run over the right field fence to tie the game at 4-4. Mann walked, junior Danny Locker reached on a fielder’s choice error, and Nytrae’s game-winning double brought the proceedings to a thrilling conclusion. Miller gave up three runs on five hits with one walk and one strikeout in five innings for the Rebels. Namestnik had two hits, drove in two runs, and scored one. Junior Nick Barrus added two hits and a run scored. “I thought we hung in there real well,” said first-year South coach Ed Mugridge, who previously was a head coach at Cleveland Heights and Wickliffe. “Lake Catholic’s a really good team, and we’ve gotten off to a slow start this year. But things are starting to come together. We had a close loss against Berea, and I thought we were over the hump (in today’s game). We made some nice plays on defense, had some timely hitting and good base-running, but in the end it just wasn’t enough.” @southathletics Coach Ed Mugridge discusses the Rebels’ 5-4 loss to Lake Catholic on Andrews-Osborne’s turf field pic.twitter.com/dc2rap8CKj — Jay Kron (@TownCenter2) April 5, 2025 Radigan had a big day for the Cougars with a home run and a double, a run scored, a stolen base, and two RBI, and was credited with the win after surrendering one run on three hits and striking out four in his two innings on the mound. Nytrae finished with two doubles, one run and one RBI, and Trobenter singled, homered, scored a run and drove one in. “We’ve been battling in close games all year (so far), and I don’t think those are games that we would win last year,” Leroy said. “Our kids have grown up a lot and have shown maturity, trusting each other, which is great. South’s a good program. Any time we can come out and get one against them, it feels good.” The score Lake Catholic 5, South 4 ...read more read less