King’s Academy Falls 3-2 In Extra Innings In Class 3A Regional Final

The King’s Academy Lions before a preseason game against Chaminade-Madonna

Most rollercoaster rides last for half a minute.

But for the King’s Academy baseball team, this rollercoaster ride lasted 10 innings.

The Lions played an exciting but gut-wrenching marathon contest, ultimately falling 3-2 to host St. Petersburg Catholic in a Class 3A regional championship.

It is the third straight season the Lions (19-11) have fallen in the regional title game.

“I thought the third year in a row, I felt it might be the one,” Lions coach Doug Magaw said. “It’s a pretty somber mood, the kids took it tough. But the fact is we had so many opportunities and we didn’t take care of business. Nothing is better then timely hitting.”

Senior star Kevin Stypulkowski supplied that example early on with a two-run home run in the top of the first inning to give the Lions a 2-0 lead, a lead they held until the sixth inning when the Barons (20-9-1) scored to tie it up and eventually force extra innings.

St. Petersburg Catholic nearly ended the game two innings earlier, but the Lions were able to end the inning by throwing out the potential-winning run on a play at the plate.

King’s Academy had numerous scoring chances, but just never managed to produce any more runs after Stypulkowski’s home run.

“As exciting as one can imagine the idea of getting right on the board with two runs in the first inning, we didn’t score any more runs the rest of the game,” Magaw said. “We were putting the ball in play, but just couldn’t get it. We had runners on but we just didn’t get them in.”

King’s Academy had been on a mission all season to get back to this point, and then finally move on with a state tournament berth. But instead it must now thirst at least one more year for that next big step for the program.

The Lions had scheduled a very competitive slate of games this year to prepare for the “second season”, as Magaw refers to the playoffs. King’s Academy had won six straight down the stretch and had only two losses all season by more than two runs, despite the tough competition. Although the team did not clear that last hurdle it has had in its sights all season, they did set a new standard for this program with so much overall success these past few seasons.

“We have some driven seniors and juniors for next year,” Magaw said. “I don’t know if it is possible to replace offense like Kevin’s, but everybody else is returning and I have no doubts we will be right back here next year.”

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