ITEM FILE PHOTO
St. John’s Prep’s Jake Spada makes contact earlier this season.
By MIKE ALONGI
The good thing about double-elimination tournaments is that you always get a second chance. Such is the case for the St. John’s Prep baseball team, which lost its first game in the Super 8 tournament to No. 6 Braintree last week and has since rallied to come within one game of meeting the Wamps once again in the Super 8 Final. But first, the No. 3 Eagles must get through Catholic Conference rival No. 4 Xaverian in the Loser’s Bracket Final, which will be played tonight at 7 p.m. at Campanelli Stadium in Brockton.
“We feel pretty good coming in, and we’re excited for the opportunity,” said Eagles head coach Dan LeTarte. “We’ve been playing some really good baseball lately, so we’re ready to get back out on the field for sure.”
St. John’s and Xaverian split their two regular season meetings this year, each team winning on the opponent’s home field.
“They’re obviously an opponent we know very well, and a team we have a lot of respect for,” said LeTarte. “We’re going to have to give our best effort and make plays behind our pitchers if we want to keep playing.”
The two teams took slightly different paths to end up in the Loser’s Bracket Final. While the Eagles fell to Braintree in the first round, Xaverian was able to notch convincing wins over No. 5 Pope Francis (6-0) and No. 1 BC High (8-4) in the first two rounds before falling to the same Braintree team in the third round of the Winner’s Bracket.
With their backs against the wall, the Eagles had to battle through wins over No. 7 Plymouth North, BC High and No. 2 St. John’s of Shrewsbury. After the Eagles kept their season alive with a walk-off win over Plymouth North, they rolled to a 12-1 victory over BC High before beating St. John’s of Shrewsbury, 4-2, in a tight battle on Monday night.
“After that first-round loss, obviously we were a little down,” LeTarte said. “But after getting that walk-off win against Plymouth North I think our confidence just skyrocketed us forward.”
LeTarte notes that starting pitcher Brendan Powicki of Lynn had a solid start against St. John’s on Monday, and the confidence he gives the other players has led LeTarte to start him again against Xaverian.
“We generally get a lot of run support when he’s on the mound, and I think it’s naturally given our hitters a lot of confidence when he’s out on the mound,” LeTarte said.
Powicki is 6-0 on the season with a 2.57 ERA.
In addition to Powicki, LeTarte is using a “pitcher by committee” approach to get through the tournament. The idea, according to LeTarte, is to keep each pitcher fresh and almost force them to work off of each other.
“It’s an approach where each guy needs to go out and get six outs,” he said. “So each guy is basically in a closer role, and they have to pick each other up when necessary. It’s worked out well for us so far, and we’re happy with the results.”
Other pitchers who included in the mix have been Colin Nye, Nolan Webb and Chris Murphy, among others.
But the main guy is Powicki, at least in this tournament. The start against Xaverian will be his third game in a row and his fourth in five games.
“He’s definitely been getting a lot of work, and he’s really been coming through for us,” said LeTarte. “But man, starting four games out of five in the Super 8, that’s got to be some kind of record.”
