DANVERS — It may have taken the St. John’s Prep baseball team a little while to get going on Wednesday, but thanks to a seven-run bottom of the fifth, the Eagles were able to pull out a 9-1 victory over Catholic Conference foe Xaverian at Pete Frates Field.
“As I get older, I’ve learned to just not worry as much and let the guys go out there and play,” said St. John’s Prep coach Dan Letarte. “It’s like going to the playground and letting your kid go down the slide by himself — eventually you’ve just got to let him do it. Our guys were able to take advantage of a couple of mistakes and get those timely hits to push us ahead.”
Dylan Wodarski went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI in the victory for the Prep, while Aidan Driscoll went 1-for-3 with two RBI. Kyle Webster (2-for-3), Payton Palladino (1-for-4), Shane Williams (1-for-3) and Nick Solitro (0-for-4) each had one RBI in the win, while Cam LaGrassa (2-for-4, run scored) and Tucker Larson (2-for-3, run scored) added multi-hit games.
On the mound, Cam Wodarski picked up the win after tossing three scoreless innings of relief and allowing one hit while striking out two. Starter Connor Remley also had a solid outing, allowing one unearned run on two hits with four strikeouts in four innings of work.
“Our guys pitched really well today,” said Letarte. “We basically had Connor on a pitch count today because it’s still early in the season, but he did a great job and then Cam came in and pitched really well, too.”
The game was a scoreless tie through the first three innings, as both pitchers did a good job of keeping hitters off balance and forcing some tough swings.
But in the top of the fourth, Xaverian was finally able to get on the board after a throwing error kept the ending alive and allowed Will Ferrara to knock an RBI sacrifice fly and give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
The Prep answered back in the bottom of the inning, and once they got going the Eagles never looked back.
A single, a muffed fielder’s choice and a bunt single loaded up the bases before Williams drew an RBI walk to tie the game at 1-1. Driscoll followed that with a two-run single. Then the Prep took advantage of a Xaverian mistake and scored on a bad throw to second base on a steal attempt. Three batters later, Palladino’s RBI single made it a 5-1 game. Next up was Dylan Wodarski, who capped the inning with a two-run double of his own to make it 7-1 Eagles.
“That was definitely our best inning of hitting all year so far, and it was great to see so many guys contribute,” said Letarte.
The Eagles were able to add two more runs in the bottom of the sixth behind RBI knocks from Webster and Solitro, paving the way for Cam Wodarski to finish things off with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh.
St. John’s Prep (4-1) will now have nine days off before returning to the field April 22 against Haverhill.
“It’ll be nice for the guys to get a couple of days off here, and then we’ll just get back to work,” said Letarte. “We’ve still got a long way to go in the season and we’ve got some tough opponents coming up, but we’re ready for the test.”
