ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
St. John’s Prep Andrew Selima is congratulated after scoring the go-ahead run against Xaverian in the Division 1A Loser’s Bracket Final at Campanelli Stadium on Wednesday.
By KATIE MORRISON
BROCKTON — After losing their first game in the double-elimination Super 8 tournament, the St. John’s Prep baseball team climbed all the way back, earning a spot in Thursday’s Division 1A Final with a 9-5, come-from-behind victory against Xaverian at Campanelli Stadium Wednesday night.
Thursday’s Super 8 Final will be a rematch of last year’s, with the No. 3 Prep taking on No. 6 Braintree at 7 p.m. at Campanelli.
“Big hits, nice execution, great pitching…some of the guys struggled early, but the guys did well,” said St. John’s Prep coach Dan Letarte. “The team’s just loose now, they’re having fun, they’re playing hard and they’re just executing, which is good because at times we weren’t on the same page. We are now, and it’s a great feeling.”
The Prep again employed the pitcher-by-committee approach it’s been using throughout the Super 8 tournament, with Lynn’s Brendan Powicki getting the start.
Powicki got into trouble early, allowing hits to the first three Xaverian batters. But the right-hander was able to limit the damage, getting Zach Sette to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, scoring the runner from third, and then a fly out to center to end the inning with the Prep down by just a run.
The Eagles got it back in the bottom of the inning in similar fashion. A leadoff walk to Jack Arend and single from Chris Francoeur off Xaverian starter Daniel Chapski put runners on first and second with nobody out. Mike Yarin grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, allowing Arend to score.
Powicki allowed just a single in the second, and was relieved by Chris Murphy to start the third.
Murphy allowed two runs in the inning, with hits from Sette and Vicente Mendoza doing the damage and giving the Hawks a 3-1 lead.
St. John’s Prep’s Sean McGinnis reached on an error to begin the fourth, and the Eagles took advantage. Frank DiOrio knocked in a run on a triple, and Andrew Selima’s single knotted the game at three.
In the sixth, with Colin Nye on the hill for the Prep, a hit batter and double from Troy Shepherd gave the Hawks runners on second and third with nobody out. A nice leaping stab on a grounder off the bat of Colby Lewis by third baseman Yarin kept the runners holding in place as Yarin got the runner at first.
Xaverian’s Andrew Ryan tried to lay down the bunt in a suicide squeeze, but missed on a low pitch, leaving Mendoza hung up between third and home. Third baseman Yarin tagged him out for the second out, and a ground out to second for the third out allowed Nye and the Eagles to escape unscathed.
They made the Hawks pay for the mistake in the home half of the inning. Selima smacked a leadoff double and went to third on Mike Larovere’s sac bunt. Jake Spada came through with the big hit, a long double to right that brought in the go-ahead run.
Francoeur singled with two outs to drive home Spada to extend the Eagles’ lead to 5-3. A hit batter followed the single, and that would do it for Chapski.
The Eagles added two insurance runs in the seventh, manufactured by taking advantage of three Xaverian errors in the inning.
Those runs would prove to be big as the Hawks scored twice in the eighth, but Francoeur’s two-run home run to left field in the bottom half of the inning restored St. John’s four-run advantage.
The Eagles will be looking for revenge against Braintree Thursday. Not only did the Wamps hand the Prep a 10-4 loss in the opening round of this year’s tournament, but they defeated the Eagles, 7-2, to win last year’s Super 8 crown. Since Braintree has yet to lose in the tournament, the Prep will need to beat the Wamps twice in a row to earn the title.
Letarte said that after he speaks with his pitchers in the morning to see how their arms are feeling, he’ll decide whether he’ll continue to use the mix-and-match approach that has been working so far.
“If something’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Letarte, who also said his main concern is not just doing what’s best for the team, but the health of his players as well.
Whatever approach the team employs, Letarte knows the Eagles will have their work cut out for them against a strong Wamps lineup.
“They can hit. We have to hope our approach works, they’re the best-hitting team we face, without a doubt,” he said. “Something’s got to give, but we’re just looking forward to coming back and playing another day.”
