WESTWOOD — After going back and forth with Catholic Conference foe and South champion Xaverian for the first few innings Wednesday afternoon, the North champion St. John’s Prep baseball team only mustered four hits over the final four innings in an 8-3 loss in a Division 1 state semifinal game on the road.
“It just came down to hitting,” said St. John’s Prep coach Dan Letarte. “(Xaverian) is a great team and they just kept hitting out there. They were making great contact on our offspeed stuff and then on the other side, we just couldn’t get any hits with runners on base. We made some nice defensive plays and that kept us in the game at times, but in the end we just couldn’t get enough hits out there.”
Eric Wing led the Eagles’ offense, going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Christopher Dirks went 1-for-4 with an RBI, while Nick Solitro (2-for-3), Pat D’Amico (1-for-3, stolen base), Gavin George (1-for-3), Payton Palladino (1-for-4, run scored), DJ Pacheco (1-for-4, double) and Kyle Webster (1-for-4, double) all had hits.
Joseph Gizmunt took the loss on the mound for the Eagles, while Peter Martin and Connor Remley also saw time on the mound.
Xaverian struck first in this one after the Prep threatened with a runner on third in the top of the first. The Hawks were able to move runners to first and third before a successful double steal brought home Henry Fleckner to make it 1-0 Xaverian.
But the Prep responded right back in the top of the second, getting runners on second and third for Wing — who laced a two-run single up the middle to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.
But the back-and-forth play continued into the bottom of the second, as a lead-off walk and an RBI double from Dylan Reilly tied the game at 2-2. After a walk and a hit batter, Fleckner stepped in with the bases loaded and knocked a two-run double to give the Hawks the lead again. The Prep nearly escaped the inning after that with a double play, but Catholic Conference MVP Matt Brinker kept the inning alive with an RBI double to make it 5-2 Xaverian.
After Dirks got a run back for the Eagles on an RBI single in the top of the third, Xaverian extended its lead even further in the fourth after another RBI double from Brinker and a miscue in the Prep outfield brought home two runs to put the score at 7-3.
The Eagles put runners on base in the fifth and sixth innings, but Xaverian pitcher John Connolly pitched his way out of trouble both times to keep the lead.
The Hawks rounded out their scoring in the bottom of the sixth, when Brinker notched his third RBI of the day on a sacrifice fly to make it 8-3.
The Prep moved runners to second and third in the top of the seventh and chased Connolly from the game, but relief pitcher Marc Cedrone came in and retired three straight batters to seal the win and end the Eagles’ season.
St. John’s Prep closes out the season at 14-4.
“This was just a great group of guys,” said Letarte. “I had one guy back (from the 2019 Super 8 team), and everyone worked so hard in between and got so much better. We came into the season not knowing how well everyone would do, and we were going to play it by ear, but the way these guys came together and played as a team was incredible. It was just a great group of guys — I’m proud they won the North and they were incredibly fun to coach.”