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Justin Reimer's Sacrifice fly with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning propelled the St. John's Cadets over the St. Albans Bulldogs in the DCSAA Semifinals on Thursday afternoon.

It was billed as an excellent matchup of starting pitching that saw St. John's young star 2022 RHP/IF James Triantos (North Carolina) toe the rubber against Bulldog ace 2019 LHP Clark Klitenic (Duke). Neither disappointed in possibly one of the top pitching duels I had the privilege to be part of this spring.

Both arms pitched extremely well in this game, controlling the opposing lineups and keeping them at bay the majority of the game. Through six innings, Klitenic had allowed St. John's to reach second base one time while Triantos had allowed only two. Both used their full repertoire of pitches to stymie the opposing offenses. Triantos with a power fastball to match up with a diving changeup and late action breaking ball. Klitenic with a high velocity fastball of his own that had late and hard movement on the pitch, while he also created fits with an advanced change up that made his fastball that much better along with a big breaking ball.

The game cruised through six innings and that was when the excitement really got going. St. Albans started the inning off with a leadoff single from the bat of Brandon Torng, who was able to steal second base during the next at bat. That hitter, Max DeLorme was able to hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield that would allow Torng to advance to third base with one out. Triantos was able to get a huge strikeout the next hitter to get the second out of the inning. St. John's would then make a pitching change, going to their senior Sean Culkin (JMU) who would get the Cadets out of the inning one pitch later on a well hit ball to deep right center that was ran down by centerfielder Alex Warren and end the Bulldog threat.

Warren would then lead off the next inning with a push bunt down the first base line and just beat the flip from Klitenic, who just couldn't get enough on the flip to get the speedy Warren out. Warren would steal second and Albans would put a runner on second via intentional walk to create a force play. Klitenic would strikeout the next hitter and St. John's would respond with an aggressive double steal early in the next at bat to get runner at second and third with one out. Albans would put the next hitter on to again create a force play that would lead to Reimer coming up to the plate who sent a one-strike fly ball to center that was enough to score Warren and end the game.

Triantos would end up with a 6.2 innings pitched, scattering three hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Warren, Triantos, and Kyras Dawson each had a hit for the Cadets in the win.

Klitentic would also go 6.2 innings on the mound while giving up three hits with three walk, a hit batter, and seven strikeouts on the day. Torng, Klitenic, and Chase Daneker each had the Bulldogs hits in the game.

St. John's will advance to the DCSAA Championship game on Saturday where they will take on Wilson at Nats Academy.