In a marquee pitching match up between Kyle Young of St. Dominic’s and Julien Arcos of Chaminade, it was a last inning rally that was the real story of this game.
Just three outs away from coming away with a convincing season-opening victory against the same team that foiled their hopes of winning the CHSAA title in 2015, Jimmy Conway ran into trouble in the seventh inning.
After walking the leadoff batter, and allowing a double to Straton Podaras, Anthony Greco smacked a double to give the Flyers a 4-3 lead, one that they would eventually turn into a 10-3 blowout.
Photo Credit: Vinny Messana
Young lit up the radar gun with fastballs and struck out 8 through the first three innings but was lifted in favor of Conway in the fifth inning when he ran into trouble.
Conway recorded a huge strikeout with the bases loaded in the fifth of Joe Suozzi which appeared to put them in great position to win the game.
The Flyers had other plans.
“We knew we had it at the end,” said Podaras who is the No. 1 ranked prospect in the 2016 class according to Blue Chip Prospects. “Everyone knew it. So we just had to get a guy on base, get him over maybe. We knew we’d get the two runs,” he added.
The x-factor in this game was really the wind. Julien Arcos noted that he had to focus on keeping the ball down. For the first three innings, he faced the minimum and did a great job.
He ran into trouble in the fourth, however, when Connor Sullivan started the rally off with a well-struck double. After a sacrifice bunt, John LaRocca followed with a double of his own and Justin Rodriguez got one into the wind and over the right field fence to give them the 3-1 lead.
Podaras noted the wind played a huge role in that home run, as Rodriguez actually hit the ball off the end of the bat.
Arcos escaped the jam and got through the fifth and sixth inning without issue.
He finished having thrown 63 pitches over his six innings.
“The important thing was first pitch strikes, and also the defense,” said Arcos. “The defense played great today,” he added.
Marty Egan came on for the seventh and he fired a 1-2-3 inning to record the Flyers first win of the season.
For St. Dom’s, Sullivan had two hits–their only player with multiple hits. He also threw out a runner at the plate which temporarily preserved their 3-2 lead.
The consensus entering the season was that these two teams would be battling it out for the top spot in the league, but today it was the Flyers who showed their resiliency and ability to win despite facing the opposition’s ace.
