Top 15 baseball finals in 15 years at Wild Things Park: North Catholic rallies past Seton LaSalle

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, May 19, 2018 | 10:09 AM

The TribLive High School Sports Network is counting down the Top 15 WPIAL baseball championship games held over the past 15 years at Wild Things Park.

Catch all the postseason action on the exclusive broadcast home of the WPIAL baseball playoffs, the TribLive High School Sports Network.

Here's a look at No. 10:

2007 Class AA championship: North Catholic 4, Seton LaSalle 3

It was a throwback to the old days. The first all-Catholic School WPIAL championship baseball game of the new century was a civil war of sorts that pitted North Catholic against the school formerly known as South Hills Catholic. Just when it looked like the south would finally rise, a Trojans' dramatic comeback left another band of Rebels dealing with a bitter defeat.

North Catholic scored three times in the bottom of the seventh to rally for a 4-3 victory over Seton-LaSalle for the Trojans' second WPIAL Class AA championship in three years.

The Trojans jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Seton LaSalle starter Patric Capatolla. But the junior hurler settled into a dominant performance, allowing only one more hit in the next five innings.

Meanwhile, the Rebels bats scraped across a run in the second and two more in the fourth thanks in part to current San Francisco Giants farm hand Derrick Law.

Law hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game in the second, then back-to-back RBI singles by Kevin O'Malley and Law in the fourth gave the Rebels what seemed like a huge cushion with a 3-1 lead.

That all changed thanks to the bottom of the North Catholic order in the dramatic bottom of the seventh.

With runners at second and third and one out, No. 8 hitter Rob McCaughan drilled a triple to left field to tie the game at 3-3.

Then up came Fran Long who was 0 for 2 in the game. North Catholic coach Pat Fabian admitted afterward he thought about sending up a pinch hitter, but he stuck with Long, who came through with a base hit to left center that scored McCaughan with the golden run for the Trojans.

The WPIAL championship was the second and most recent for now-renamed Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic.

The crushing loss prevented Seton LaSalle from winning a second district baseball championship and was a prelude for another heartbreaking defeat in the title game seven years later.

Don Rebel is a TribLIVE High School Sports Network broadcaster and staff writer. Reach him at drebel@tribweb.com.

Tags: Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic, North Catholic, Seton-LaSalle