Eagles fall in ninth to Redding Christian

For the third time this year, a Princeton High School athletic team came oh so close to winning a section championship, only to fall short of the prize.

The Eagles went nine innings with the top-seeded Redding Christian Lions on Thursday before falling 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth on a bases-loaded single by Lion junior Daniel Bartow in the Northern Section Division 6 championship game.

Previously this season, the Eagles advanced to the section title game in eight-man football, but lost to Champion Christian. In basketball, Princeton won the league championship and advanced to the Division 6 semifinals before losing to Westwood.

The Eagles advanced to Thursday’s final without doing much at all. After the seedings were announced on May 14, Princeton, the No. 2 seed, was left without a game after the No. 3 seed Butte Valley decided to forfeit to the Eagles. Meanwhile Redding Christian knocked off Greenville 7-0 on Tuesday to advance to the finals.

Princeton looked a bit rusty in the first inning as the Lions got three hits, including a double, off of starter Darren Swearinger to take a 1-0 lead.

However Swearinger got through the second inning, picking off Bartow at first base to end the frame, and Guillermo Rodriguez took Swearinger’s place on the mound for the next five innings.

During that span, the Lions barely managed a baserunner off of the Eagle junior. Rodriguez allowed just a badhop single in the third inning and faced just two batters over the minimum in his five innings on the mound.

Meanwhile the Eagle offense wasn’t having much luck off of Bartow. One of the leading strikeout pitchers in the Northern Section with 123 K’s, Bartow fanned eight Eagles in his eight innings on the mound.

However Bartow gave up two big hits in the sixth inning which allowed the Eagles to tie the game. With one out, Mason Moore hit a shot to dead centerfield that bounced off the fence for a double.

Cody Hanson followed with a basehit down the right field line that was good for an RBI double. Hanson, however, was thrown out trying to advance to third on the play. Bartow struck out the next batter to end the inning.

The Eagles never got close again. Although Hanson singled to start the ninth inning, reliever Kris Warner, who leads the Northern Section with 140 strikeouts, struck out the next three batters to end the inning.

The Lions began the bottom of the ninth with a basehit but the Eagles got a strikeout and then tagged out the lead runner between second and third on a basehit by Keegan Williams.

But a pair of walks loaded the bases for Bartow. Owner of a .568 batting average, Bartow slapped a hard shot down the left field line that skipped over the third baseman’s glove for the gamewinning RBI.

The Eagles finish the season with a 16-7 overall record while Redding Christian closes the year with a 21-3 mark.