Baseball | 5/9/2025 12:48:00 PM

The following is the article from The San Diego Union-Tribune, "Cathedral Catholic beats rival St. Augustine in Western League showdown."

The door to the Western League baseball championship is still open.

Cathedral Catholic High School kept archrival St. Augustine from slamming the door shut with a come-from-behind 7-4 win at Hickman Field.

With the win, No. 7-ranked Cathedral Catholic improves to 14-10 overall and 5-4 in league play. The Dons finish league play with three games against Point Loma (5-4 in the league) next week.

St. Augustine, ranked No. 3, falls to 7-4-1 in league play and is 17-9-1. The Saints are idle next week.

Patrick Henry is 6-4-1 in the league and finishes with a three-game series against Scripps Ranch (1-8). St. Augustine and Patrick Henry went 1-1-1 in the three-game league series, the tie was a controversial 0-0, 11-inning affair that was called on account of darkness. The City Conference and the CIF rule that the game will not be finished and goes down as a tie.

"We gave ourselves a chance," said Cathedral Catholic coach Gary Remiker, whose Dons lost the first two games of the three-game series with St. Augustine. "This keeps us in it. Scripps stole a game from St. Augustine, so we're all hoping they can do it again."

St. Augustine led 4-3 entering the seventh inning, scoring in the bottom of the sixth on a controversial balk call with a runner on third base.

But Cathedral Catholic scored four times as Trey Kotsay led off with a double, Trey Gouday singled and Joshua Priest singled to tie the score. A sacrifice, two errors and an RBI single by Christopher LeTourneau later and the Dons had four runs.

"The first half of the game St. Augustine was the better team," Remiker said. "They executed and we threw the ball around.

"The second half of the game, they made mistakes and we took advantage."

Kaden Kuhn pitched the final two innings for Cathedral Catholic, working out of a two-on, one-out jam in the bottom of the seventh.
"I just wanted to get ahead of the hitters and keep the momentum on our side," Kuhn said. "I knew I was in relief today, so I was ready to pitch.

"After we scored, I had to shut them down."

Priest had the big hit in the top of the seventh to tie the game. Then scored an insurance run.

"My thinking was 'if the pitch is there, crush it,"' Priest said. "It was a curve that caught a little more  of the zone than the pitcher would have liked.

"The energy on the bench was way up. I needed to keep us rolling. The guys before me fueled the fire. Lit the match. I was up at the right time and did my part. Now we have a chance to get into the Open Division playoffs."

St. Augustine coach Craig da Luz lamented the fact his team left nine runners on base … at least one in every inning.

"We had a chance to add on early in the game, and didn't do it," da Luz said. "We had runners all  over the bases, but couldn't add on.

"Then in that seventh inning we didn't execute on defense."

The baseball playoffs will be seeded are based on power rankings.

Going into Thursday, Granite Hills was the No. 1 seed in the eight-team Open Division, followed by St. Augustine, San Marcos, Patrick Henry, La Costa Canyon, Point Loma, Carlsbad and Del Norte.Cathedral Catholic was No. 3 in the 12-team Division 1 power rankings.

"A lot could change in the final week," Remiker said. "The CIF said they were trying to decide on point values for games played against teams from outside San Diego.

"We have several of those, so things can change."