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Do You Believe in Miracles?

Posted 05/14/2025 by Jesus Flores-Sanchez

The TJ Baseball Team rushing the field and celebrating one of the most improbable comebacks of the program’s history in the last game of the 2025 season. photo by Amaris Medina

The story of how the Spartans against all odds won the last baseball game of the season and completed the comeback against Montbello.

May 12, 2025, was a sunny Monday afternoon that was TJ Baseball’s rescheduled senior night, since it had been postponed because of bad weather the week before. Emotions filled the air from the start. Hugs, photos, and fans watching the last time this group of guys would ever share the field again. 

The game was expected to go on without much struggle for TJ as they had beaten Montbello 9-3 earlier in the season. TJ needed a win to close the chapter for the 2025 seniors who had been writing the program’s story for the past four years, to properly send them off and end the season on a high note. However, Montbello surprised everyone, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The air quickly filled with tension and everything seemed to crumble after the Warriors put up seven in the third. In the blink of an eye, the Spartans were on the verge of a mercy rule and senior night seemed to turn into a nightmare. But TJ baseball wasn’t done yet. Four years of hard work in the program deserved a little better than 10-0 for their last game ever. Down to what could have been the last three outs, they fought, chipping away at the deficit with four runs in the fourth to make it 10-4. It wasn’t much yet, as it’s impossible to put up ten runs with one swing, but it was enough to spark a belief. This belief grew stronger each inning as Montbello got shut down and scored only one more run for the rest of the game. The offense managed to scratch one in the bottom of the 6th. 

5-11, top of the 7th. If the Spartans wanted a shot at coming back, they desperately needed to keep them at 11. So they did, entering the bottom of the 7th, the boys still had a long way to go, but that didn’t matter. They refused to go out like that and hope was all that they had. The dugout was alive, with rally hats and fans standing on benches. Sophomore Shepard Schneider, the first batter of the inning, flew out to right field. In any other game that would have killed the Spartan spirit, but this day their spirit burned with such a passion they could only get louder after that. Then came a single, then a walk, then another single. The bats were rolling and the runs kept piling up, before you knew it, the tying run was at second base, with senior Jackson Schneider at the plate. 11-9, bases loaded, Jackson hit a flyball and scored  Noah Klein to make it a one run ballgame. 

Two outs, tying run on second base, winning run at first, Shepard Schneider is at the plate again. The game was on the line, the dugout was full of hope, you could feel the weight of the moment, you could hear the prayers for the comeback to be completed, “What if we pulled it off? How insane would it be to end it this way?” The pitcher lifts and goes to the plate, a rocket hit into the left-center gap. The tying run scored, the crowd and the dugout erupted. But it wasn’t over yet, because rounding 3rd base was freshman Xavier Navarro who slid into home plate sealing the victory for TJ. 

12-11, game over. The Spartans did it, pulling off one of the most unbelievable comebacks in the program’s history, on senior night, on their last swing, on their last game together. It was a storybook ending. A miracle.