By Jason Stellakis ‘23 and Alex Grondin ‘22
The St. John’s Prep baseball team was set to face the 0-3 Xaverian Hawks on Wednesday afternoon. The first pitch was scheduled for 4 pm and occurred just a bit later with perfect weather. The Eagles looked to get their third straight win and improve to 4-1 while the Hawks were looking to earn their first victory of the young season.
The beginning of the game was very even due to dominant pitching by SJP’s Connor Remly and X’s John Haynes. The first four innings from both pitchers were nothing short of exceptional, with Connor Remley racking up four strikeouts and John Haynes racking up three himself. That does not seem like much, but when contact was made, it was very minimal. Remley let up only one hit and Haynes let up four. However, this is deceiving because three of them came in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Prep would go on to score seven runs in that inning.
The Prep headed into the bottom of the 5th being down 1-0 after a Will Ferrara (Hawks left fielder) sacrifice fly that sent Michael Oates (Hawks catcher) home. The inning got off to a good start as Dylan Wodarski belted a drive into right center field that landed him at first base. Then Victor Harrington was up to bat and reached on an error by the third baseman, Nico Lambros. Tucker Larson was on base to wrap up the bottom of the lineup, thankfully he was able to get a base hit that saw Prep with three on base. The lead-off man, Shane Willams, was up to bat and was walked. That called in a pinch runner for Dylan Wodarski, Carson Browne. He was able to even up the score after hustling home. Aidan Driscoll the DH drove in two runs on an RBI single. This gave the Prep a 3-1 lead with no outs, but they were still not done. Kyle Webster was then walked and that was the last straw for John Haynes, and a pitching change would be made. Despite this, the Prep was able to get four more runs thanks to hits from Payton Pallidino and Dylan Wodarski.
Despite great offense in the bottom of the fifth from the Prep, not much more would come from this game. Cam Wodarski came into pitch for Connor Remley and he would give up zero runs. The Eagles would land two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and round out the scoring, 9-1. However, it is important to note that Shane Williams made a fantastic double play from center field after a Ferrara line-out and a 8-4 double play.
In an interview after the game, center fielder Shane Williams spoke with Jason Stellakis about his great plays from today. Williams said, “In the outfield, me, Tucker, and Victor (Harrington RF), we are all just working to make plays to help out Cam and help out Remley.” Jason also asked about what clicked in the huge fifth inning surge, Williams replied, “I think we just have to have the same mentality...make sure we put the bat on the ball, and keep swinging for contact.”
The Eagles now advance to 4-1 on the regular season and will enjoy a spring break as their next game is not until April 22nd away against Haverhill High School.