SPRINGFIELD – Radnor coach Mark Jordan thinks his team is a year away from being a legitimate contender for the Central League championship. Jordan also believes that with more hard work his young club of mainly sophomores and juniors has a chance to make headway in 2024.
Sophomore Austin Havertine is one player Jordan is happy to have around. The hard-throwing right hander allowed one hit (a bunt single) over five innings, striking out three, in a 6-0 victory at Springfield Wednesday afternoon.
Havertine pitched around five walks and coaxed seven ground ball outs. He silenced the Cougars, who 48 hours earlier earned the biggest upset of the Central League season, handing reigning champion Strath Haven its first loss of the season.
Maybe, just maybe, Radnor is arriving sooner than anticipated.
“We have good chemistry and we respond to each other really well,” said Havertine, who throws a heavy fastball that sits in the low-80s. “We are always there to pick each other up.”
Jordan knows a thing or two about good young pitching and pictures Havertine developing into a dominant high school ace. Jordan half-jokingly stated he’d prefer to keep Havertine a “secret” for as long as possible. Rest assured the Central League has taken notice of the young Radnor pitcher, who threw 40 varsity innings as a freshman and in 2024 has allowed only six earned runs in 21 innings with 20 strikeouts.
“We know when Austin pitches we have a chance to win most of his games,” Jordan said. “He was a bit all over the place today – I’ve seen better than that in the last year-and-a-half with him pitching. And I had him in the summertime with Legion baseball. He wasn’t totally sharp today, but they didn’t score any runs and that’s pretty good for a sophomore kid. Springfield has three or four big senior kids, good players, and they had no runs. He shut them down a little, which is great to see.
“They’re going to know about him. I think he can be pitcher of the year in two years. He has three pitches (fastball, curveball and changeup). He can move the ball up and down, inside and outside. Tonight he had a couple of walks – he’s usually always around the plate – and that kind of hurt him. But he makes hitters put the ball in play, a lot of soft contact. He throws around 83 (mph) as a sophomore and that’s great. You can make a case that he will be throwing the ball 85, 86, 87 down the road. He’s also just a great kid and very coachable.”
In addition to Havertine’s excellent pitching, the Raptors did everything else well against the Cougars to pick up their second straight win. While Radnor (3-4, 2-3) didn’t tear the cover off the ball, it had five hits – all singles – and worked four walks. The Raptors moved runners over and scored runs off three sacrifice fly balls – two by designated hitter Evan Hartman and another by shortstop Joe Krasowski.
Radnor plated two unearned runs in the first inning off Springfield starter Colin Treude, who allowed four unearned runs and one hit in three innings.
Will Selbach set the tone at the top of the order with a pair of singles and two runs scored. Krasowski ripped an RBI single to give the Raptors a 5-0 cushion in the fourth, and the junior also reached base via a walk and hit by pitch.
“We’re a gritty team,” Krasowski said. “Even in our first three games, we didn’t play all that great, but we were hanging in there against good teams. We’re starting to reach our peak and I think the Central League should start to watch out for us.”
Springfield (2-4, 1-4) was hitless until Vinny Valerio led off the fifth inning with a bunt single. Havertine got Danny Meakim to ground out to second baseman Zach Fein and struck out Jake Lennon for the second out. After walking Nick Corse, Havertine forced Jake Adams to roll a grounder to Krasowski for the final out.
Third baseman and relief pitcher Andres Cruz rolled a 6-4-3 double play in the sixth inning and Daniel Kellis worked around a pair of two-out hits in the seventh to preserve the shutout. Center fielder Teddy Monahan gunned down Danny Toal at home plate, with catcher Mike Calbrese making the shoulder tag, to end the game.
“None of these guys started for us last year – we have nine new starters – so we are coming along,” Jordan said. “The good thing is we are pitching well and playing defense. We’re hoping as the weather gets nicer our bats will come around. But we can take the extra base, get a sacrifice bunt here and a sacrifice fly there. We can play smart baseball. Springfield is a big, strong team and we were able to play well and get out of here with a nice win.”
