St. John's nips Central Catholic 1-0 in TRAC baseball gem

Apr. 27—It may still be April and only midway into the Three Rivers Athletic Conference baseball title chase, but St. John's Jesuit and host Central Catholic staged about as good a contest as can be seen at this level on Monday at Mercy Field.

When it was done, this first-rate pitcher's duel concluded with the visiting Titans taking a 1-0 victory in eight innings.

In the process, St. John's (10-2, 6-2) saw their senior ace, Jacob Davis, nearly throw his second straight no-hitter, and its senior shortstop, Nick Pett, execute as fine a defensive gem as you will ever witness before later delivering what proved to be the game-winning hit.

"Every play really mattered here today," Pett said. "Jacob pitched phenomenal, and you've got to keep the energy going in games like this. This is a really big win for us."

The Titans plated the winning run in the top of the eighth off of Irish reliever Wilson Stopera, who replaced starter Cody Markus to start that inning.

St. John's Trey Lake drew a lead-off walk, was bunted to second by Ryan Snyder, and scored on Pett's single to right field.

"[Markus] was tough," said Pett, who struck out in two of his three prior at-bats in the game. "He was throwing the ball real well. We couldn't really get anything. They brought the next pitcher in and we got the big hit when we needed it. It was a good at-bat. I saw a fastball and attacked it."

Advertisement

Davis (5-0), who tossed a five-inning no-hitter in the Titans' five-inning, 14-0, mercy-rule over rival St. Francis de Sales last Wednesday in TRAC play, was even sharper in this game.

He hurled six more hitless and shutout innings in this contest, before losing his back-to-back no-hit bid on an infield single by Central's Trey Gray leading off the bottom of the seventh.

That came on a chopper that bounced just over the glove of a leaping Davis, then was fielded bare-handed by Irish second baseman A.J. Parker, whose throw was just late on a bang-bang call at first.

"I was a little bit bummed out, but that's baseball. It happens," Davis said. "I had to just keep going and work for my team. It was a pitcher's duel today. We knew what we had to do coming in to this one.

" They beat us before, but they weren't going to get us again. That was our focus. They had a great pitcher on the mound, and all around this was a great game to be a part of. I'm still amped up. I feel like I could go another 10 innings."

Davis finished his eight-inning one-hitter with 13 strikeouts.

That was one fewer strikeout than Central sophomore right-hander Cody Markus had recorded in his seven innings of four-hit, shutout baseball.

"That was as good a high school as we've been a part of in a long time, and their guy on the mound was dominant," Irish coach Jeff Mielcarek said. "Cody was extremely good, too.

"He wasn't real efficient with pitch count, but, man, he was really good. They both were. Even taking a loss, that was a great game."

The Irish (7-3, 4-3), who had beaten St. John's in their earlier TRAC meeting this season, appeared ready to provide Markus a reward for his 14-strikeout gem in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Davis walked Parker to lead off the inning, but had a 1-2 count on Irish batter Wilson Stopera, who grounded a ball sharply toward second base for what initially appeared to be Central's first hit.

But Pett, ranging far to his left, dived to snare the ball before twisting and rolling his body to flick the ball from his glove to Titans second baseman J.P. Wagner. Wagner got Parker on the force, then fired to first baseman Carter Binkowski to complete the magnificent double play.

"I've been practicing that stuff and game time came around and I was able to do it," Pett said. "The behind-the-back flip, I had to do it in the moment."

No one was as happy as Pett's pitcher.

"Oh my," Davis said of Pett's play. "He's been trying that all year, honestly. That's a SportsCenter Top 10, easily. I'm proud of him."

Added Fischer: "We let them do that stuff in practice, and it can have its price to pay. But, I've played baseball and been around it along time, and I've never seen anything like that. That was a huge momentum builder for us."

The play seemed like an illusion of sorts to Mielcarek.

"Wilson hit the ball hard and, when I saw [Pett] make the stop, I was impressed with the stop," the veteran coach said. "Then, when I saw him make the flip, I was kind of excited because that normally doesn't have a good result in high school baseball.

"So, to get two out of it was absolutely incredible. That's a SportsCenter highlight."

Before the no-hitter versus St. Francis, Davis closed his prior start with 2 1/3 hitless innings in St. John's TRAC win over Fremont Ross. Thus, Gray's hit ended a run of 13 1/3 innings of no-hit ball thrown by the right-hander.

If there was any baseball justice in this 1-0 duel, it was that neither starter took the loss.

"It was more just keeping them off balance," Markus said. "Making them guess what was coming, and then just spotting up. I was trusting my coach on what we were throwing, and where we wanted it."

First Published April 26, 2021, 9:00pm