John Curtis scored 11 runs in the first-inning.

It almost wasn’t enough.

Newman chipped away at the Patriots’ lead, but couldn’t punch through the ceiling and Curtis won 19-13 to clinch the 10-2A crown at Kirsch-Rooney Stadium.

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Yes, you read that score right. And no, as head coach Johnny Curtis said, the Patriots didn’t miss the 2-point conversion.

There were 11 errors, 22 hits, 20 walks and six pitchers used in the nearly 3½-hour game.

“Naturally, I’m thinking we’re going to get beat a million to nothing,” Newman head coach Trey Guillot said. “We looked like we were looking for a place to hide. We couldn’t seem to do anything right.”

It all began with the second batter. Mike Vidrine reached after getting hit by a pitch, a strike that set the tone for a wild afternoon.

Curtis’ two through seven batters all scored. Vidrine, starting pitcher Matt Stansbury and John Walsdorf each scored twice in the first inning.

When the top of the first was over, Curtis (19-8, 9-0) had chased starting Newman pitcher Randy Blankenship after 2/3 of an inning. It scored 11 runs on eight hits and was helped by two Newman errors.

“I was real worried,” Guillot said. “Really wanted to see how we would respond. Obviously, real pleased with how we responded.”

The Greenies (13-13-1, 5-4) put a seven-spot on the board in the bottom of the first. A Tom Wolf lead-off single started the rally. After Ryne Sullivan was out at second, Newman’s third through eighth batters all scored.

But Johnny Curtis wasn’t all that upset with what transpired.

“If we were walking them around the bases or it was that kind of scenario, I’d say yeah, we would have lost our focus,” Curtis said. “But credit to them, they swung it.”

Curtis scored only four more runs between the first and seventh inning. The lull gave Newman the chance it was looking for to come back.

It put up a run in the second to cut the Curtis lead to 13-8. The Greenies made it a game in the third.

Wolf led off with a walk and moved to second on a balk. He reached third on Sullivan’s single, and then Sullivan stole second. With no outs, Newman had two runners in scoring position.

Wes Luquette’s fly out to right brought Wolf home. After Jimmy White struck out, Adam Levin walked to put runners on first and second. Michael Casey was hit by a pitch and the bases were loaded.

With two outs, Curtis could have gotten out of the inning, but an error by the third baseman allowed Neil Bronfin to reach safely and it also allowed Sullivan and Levin to score.

Suddenly, it was a 13-11 game. Newman chased Stansbury, Curtis’ starting pitcher, in the third after he gave up 10 runs on eight hits. But he helped the team at the plate, going 3-for-4 with four RBI, two singles and a double.

“I was very frustrated, but I couldn’t let it get to my head,” Stansbury said. “I had to keep swinging the bat at the plate.”

The teams each added two runs over the next two innings, and a scoreless sixth added suspense to the seventh, especially after the Patriots brought in sophomore reliever Bryce Jenkins in the sixth to close out the game.

“I knew I had to throw strikes,” Jenkins said. “I haven’t pitched in a varsity game that much.”

The game slipped out away from Newman in the seventh.

David Napoli, who relieved Blankenship in the first, held the Patriots at bay through the middle innings. But he ran into trouble in the seventh.

“We knew Dave was getting close to the limit of where we were going to go count-wise,” Guillot said. “We were hoping we could steal a couple of outs quick.”

Quick didn’t happen.

Walsdorf led off with a single to right. Conner Mullins and Dex Thibodeaux both walked to load the bases. Jenkins reached on an error by Newman’s third baseman, scoring one run and lengthening the lead to 16-13. A batter later, Jesse Danna stroked a pitch to the left field wall and Mullins, Thibodeaux and Jenkins all scored.

“That’s a testament to those guys,” Curtis said of his players. “We have 10 seniors. They battled and each had a part in it today. A couple of the seniors had big hits.”

Jenkins shut down Newman in the bottom of the seventh, allowing only one Newman runner, whom he walked.

And now Curtis has clinched a playoff spot and has confidence heading into the playoffs.

“You don’t want to go in on a sour note,” Johnny Curtis said. “We knew we needed to win this game to clinch the district. By clinching, it gives us a definite shot in the playoffs.”