WACO — Facing a southpaw for the first time isn’t easy.

Shiner St. Paul’s Kendall Kusak threw four innings, striking out seven and walking one, as the Cardinals defeated Calvary 6-0 on Thursday in the TAPPS 2A baseball state semifinals at the Waco ISD Sports Complex.

Kusak, who held the Lions to two hits, gave way to Blue Hybner in the fifth. Hybner blanked Calvary (13-1) the rest of way, allowing only two hits while striking out four.

“This was our first left-hander to face,” Lions head coach Jesse Longoria said. “We prepared all week and tried to work on outside pitches coming in.  We just needed to bounce back from some of our errors.”

The Lions missed a good opportunity to score in the top of the first. Richard Tomlinson led off with a double in the right-field gap and went to third on Josh Peters’ groundout. 

Tomlinson attempted to score when William Orr hit a hard grounder to third. Hybner, St. Paul’s (24-8) third baseman, threw to the plate, and catcher Gil Hodges tagged out the Lions’ base runner.

“We just had a mental error,” Longoria said.  “Orr usually hits the ball pretty hard to the opposite field or up the middle. Our guy at third just took too big a lead and tried to make something happen.”

After that point, Calvary advanced only one runner past first base.  Peters reached second on right fielder Travis Sauer’s error in the third.

In the bottom of the first, the Cardinals scored their first run without a hit. Sauer drew a one-out walk, stole second and third, and came home when catcher Cody Clayton threw wide at third. With two out, St. Paul added another run as Josh Soto beat out an infield single, stole second, and scored on a pair of wild pitches.

St. Paul padded its lead with a pair of runs in the second.  With one out, Devin Pesek walked and moved to third on a passed ball and wild pitch. 

Hodges doubled to left with two out, scoring Pesek. Sauer walked, and Hodges, who took third on a wild pitch, scored when Sauer got caught in a rundown between first and second.

The Cardinals added solo runs in the fourth and fifth en route to the shutout win.

Shiner St. Paul 6, Calvary 0

WP – Kendall Kusak. LP – Tom Elsom. 2B – C: Richard Tomlinson.  SP: Gil Hodges.  3B – SP: Hodges. Records: Calvary (13-1), Shiner St. Paul (24-8).