Pope John Paul II Remains In 3A-13 Title Hunt

Sophomore Josh Parker excelled on the mound Tuesday

In the three-team 3A-13, gaining the top seed during the regular season is huge, as it means an automatic bid into both the tournament title game and the postseason.

The Pope John Paul II Eagles ensured they still have a shot at that number one spot this season thanks to a 2-1 victory over Summit Christian on Tuesday afternoon.

Sophomore right-hander Josh Parker was the star performer, as he struck out 10 in a complete-game effort, allowing just one run on seven hits. In the earlier matchup between these teams this season, Parker allowed just one hit over four scoreless innings in a 1-0 victory.

“Josh was outstanding today. He had great composure and actually seemed to get stronger as the game went on,” winning Manager Steve Graffeo said. “When we started the season, we wanted the opportunity to play for first place going into our last game against American Heritage, and we’ve achieved that goal.”

Parker, who will spend his spring break next week visiting the University of Florida and Florida State University, pounded the zone consistently all night with his low-80s fastball, and mixed in his slider nicely when needed.

“My command was real good today, and I kept the ball down,” said Parker. “I really worked on my slider and let them put the ball in play, as I have faith in my defense. The umpire gave us a little on the outside, so I took advantage of that.”

Early on in the contest, Parker was being matched almost pitch-for-pitch by Saints starter Colin Smith, and it was the Eagles (9-7, 2-1) who had to get out of a first-inning jam as Summit put runners on the corners with two outs. But Parker’s second strikeout of the inning helped get him out of trouble.

Nick Transleau comes across for the winning run

Despite Parker’s solid work, Summit Christian (4-10, 0-4) opened the scoring in the top of the fourth. Smith led off with a ripped double to deep center field, and courtesy runner Robbie Santiago would score two batters later on a Kris Leonardi bunt.

The Saints tried to score again via the same method, but a bunt was missed and Damian Haser was tagged out after a run-down between third and home.

Pope responded immediately in the bottom of the fourth. With one out and two strikes on the board, Villanova commit Zander Retamar reached out and poked a double down the right-field line. Up stepped Stephen Gogreve, who proceeded to hit a hard grounder to third that a diving Jesse Barton could only deflect with his glove, allowing courtesy runner Andrew Dempsey to come across and tie things up.

In the fifth, Smith, who had showed impeccable control up until that point, wavered a bit, and the Eagles took full advantage.

Evan Schaffner led off with a single, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. After a one-out walk to Nick Transleau, Johnny Sheridan hit his sac bunt attempt a little too firmly. Smith went to third to get Schaffner, but the throw back to first was off the mark, a key mistake which allowed Transleau to move over to third.

Matt Luzzi, the next batter, hit a hard single to shortstop that was stopped excellently by Brandon Swass. However, his throw to first was a little rushed, and sailed, giving Transleau the opportunity to score what would be the winning run.

After Parker struck out the side in the top of the sixth to reach double digits, the Eagles had a chance to double their lead in the bottom of the inning, but some poor baserunning put pay to that.

Colin Smith pitched well in a losing effort

That didn’t put Parker off, however, and he forced the Saints into three flyouts in the seventh to finish his superb outing.

“We shot ourselves in the foot tonight,” said Summit Manager John Drouin. “Their kid pitched lights-out, but Colin did just as good a job. We’ve got to win that ball game.”

For the manager whose team did win, he was understandably pleased with his team’s effort

“We always expect a tough game against Summit, they’re a well-coached, good team,” said Graffeo, whose team will need to beat American Heritage next month and win a coin flip to get the top seed. “Yesterday I was disappointed in our effort (a 6-2 loss to Cardinal Newman). We came out without life, but today we had life. Pitching and defense will keep us in games, and we need to use our speed and small ball to try and score some runs. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t.”

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