Catcher's excitement prevents his high school team from winning the state championship, a breakdown

here. Foul ball, they catch it. That

secures them their first state

championship ever. They've been to the

finals three times. They lost all three

times. They're celebrating on the mound.

They beat Triad. They almost lost it cuz

Triad came back seven runs, but they

hold on. Final out. Foul ball in the

catcher's glove. Celebrating on the

field. They are state champions.

Illinois high school state champions.

Oh, no. Wait, what? The umpires are

getting together and they're like, "No,

guys. No."

You didn't catch it. And no one really

argues. So, either they're the most

disciplined well-coached respectful

bunch of boys in all of Illinois or

maybe the catcher's like, "Yeah.

Okay.

I thought maybe you'd say that." And

he's not really complaining or putting

up a stink. And he's just putting his

head down and walking back behind the

mound. He's going to grab his mask.

Catcher grabs the ball and then it pops

out. Now, I thought maybe he discarded

it and threw the ball out of his glove

in celebration. But you can see that's

not what happened. And then you can see

he realizes, looks at his glove,

and does the old oh, no kind of breaks

down. He's running. Did they Are they

calling it? No. Umpire's right there.

Umpire sees him look at his glove,

realize, "Oh, that wasn't He didn't

throw it in celebration." The whole

other dugout is there. First base coach

is there. Umpire's like, "No catch."

That is a gut punch because there's two

runners on. The tying run is at the

plate. Two and two. And then he swings

big and hits the game-tying

home run.

From fouling out to end the season to

hitting the game-tying home run to

complete the comeback and push the game

to extras, and St. Rita's thinking, "Oh

my god.

Are we the fools?

We celebrated for nothing." Triad's

going crazy. Their fans are shirtless,

but we go to the eighth inning. Triad

doesn't score. St. Rita has bases

loaded, one out. The 2-1 pitch is fouled

down the right field line. You should

let that drop and let it be strike two.

He opts to catch it. It's also the kid

who hit the home run. Throws home.

You're never going to throw that runner

out from that position, and St. Rita

celebrates winning twice.