Final: St. Anthony’s 11, St. John the Baptist 1
WP: Jason Decaro (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 8 Ks)Kevin Baez: 2-for-4, run, 4 RBIs
Jason Decaro: 2-for-3, 2 RBI, 1 BB
Michael Mugno: 2 RBIs pic.twitter.com/dEyxi1pVtD— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 2, 2023
When we conducted the 2023 Season Preview on St. Anthony’s, coach Paul Parsolano pointed to their exceptional starting pitching duo of Jason Decaro and Torin Kassebaum for their biggest reason for optimism heading into the season. It’s what generally carries team in the playoffs – especially if you can get one of those top two seeds and get a bye. That’s exactly what they are working for and they are currently in position to do so – with just one week remaining in the regular season.
The Friars – who improved to 10-3 in NSCHSAA play with today’s 11-1 victory over St. John the Baptist, have one more against them tomorrow and two against the three-time reigning champion Chaminade Flyers next week before the playoffs.
Decaro, who proclaimed earlier this year that they win on Tuesdays, backed it up with a big-time performance on the road today as he went 6 innings, allowed just 4 hits, walked one and struck out eight batters. Just as important as his dominance on the mound was his. contributions at the plate in the early innings for the Friars while they essentially put the game out of reach.
Top 3: It’s all St. Anthony’s right now as the Friars have opened up an 8-0 lead. Another RBI hit for Decaro and Kevin Baez added an RBI double and Kurt Johnson scored him with an RBI single pic.twitter.com/r3I2v69l4z
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) May 2, 2023
After Nick D’Avanzo retired the first batter of the game, Teddy Valentino singled on a bunt and Jason Decaro ripped an RBI double to deep center to score him. the next batter, Phil Mazzola single on a pop fly to right field that fell just out of the reach of the first baseman and right fielder and it was quickly 2-0. Dan Scubla singled to left field and Caleb Aurelien was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Michael Mugno followed with a 2-run double to open up a 4-0 lead. They weren’t done just yet, as Kevin Baez followed with an RBI ground out to score Aurelien and make it 5-0.
With a pitcher like Decaro on the mound, that is more than enough runs. He did allow one hit to Christian Alicea in the first inning, but he was able to avoid any damage.
The Friars’ bats went right back to work, as they were able to get a leadoff double by Michael Schwartz who scored on Decaro’s single to left to make it 6-0. That lead was stretched out to 7-0 in the third inning on an RBI double by Kevin Baez to deep center field and Kurt Johnson followed with an RBI single to left field and Schwartz followed with an RBI single and suddenly it was 9-0.
St. Anthony’s stayed in cruise control, but St. John the Baptist was able to get on the board in the home half of the sixth on an RBI single to center by Thomas Rorick to score CJ Pisano.
Overall, the Friars had 11 hits and drew 4 walks in the game. They improve to 10-3 on the season and will look to win the series tomorrow at home.
This season feels quite different than the previous one in the CHSAA. It feels like a number of teams can win the title. Last season, Chaminade was essentially the runaway favorites from Day 1. This year, you have St. Anthony’s and St. Dominic’s ahead of them, as well as Kellenberg and Holy Trinity. It’s anyone’s guess who gets hots and wins the title, but generally one of the top two seeds is able to set their pitching up the way they’d like.
As we saw in the match up between Kellenberg and St. Dom’s, there’s two other top-tier pitchers in the league and that’s Victor Frederick and Andrew Koshy and their teams feel pretty good about when they are on the mound as well.
