Game Of The Week: St. Andrew’s At Cardinal Newman

When St. Andrew’s travels to Cardinal Newman on Thursday for this week’s High School Baseball Network Palm Beach Game of the Week, it will be a matchup of teams very familiar with one another.

The two have been district opponents since 2006, but the Crusaders come into the matchup, which is set for 7 p.m., with the upper hand, having beaten the Scots in each of their three meetings last season.

St. Andrew’s feels better about its chances this year despite being a young team. The Scots have a solid core of veterans who will guide the new players.

Richie Rocca, Brady McConnell and Colin Hill will be relied upon to produce offensively. Rocca was key contributor last year, hitting .429 with 15 runs and 12 RBIs.

The Scots had a strong debut to the season, knocking off Archbishop Curley 20-5 on Tuesday. Richie Rocca earned the win, and Max Costello came in and threw four and one-third innings, striking out eight and allowing no hits. Rocca, Costello and Scott Gellman, who had three doubles, combined for eight hits and 13 RBIs in a game in which the Scots scored 10 runs in the top of the sixth and banged out 17 hits overall.

Two days later, the Scots fell 18-6 to district rival Pope John Paul II despite four hits from Jon Frechter and Hill, who also drove in two runs.

St. Andrew’s hosts King’s Academy in a non-district contest on Tuesday and will try to rebound as it prepares for Thursday’s game with Newman, which is off to a 2-1 start after opening with a 7-2 loss to Seminole Ridge on Monday, a 5-0 win over Forest Hill on Wednesday and a 10-0 win over Lake Worth in the Forest Hill City Tournament.

Bruce Steel will be counted on to be a key member of the Cardinal Newman team again this year.

Robbie Hoyt earned the win over Forest Hill as the Crusaders gave up four hits while pounding out eight of their own.

Newman is in its second season under new manager Sean Comfort, who took over last year for legendary manager Jack Kokinda. Kokinda retired after coaching at Newman for 43 years and compiling a record of 703-518-6. He guided the Crusaders to 17 district titles. Newman was 18-10 in Comfort’s first season and made the regionals for the first time in 20 years.

Cardinal Newman is trying to make up for the loss of six seniors, including catcher Kyle Cunningham, not only leaving a big gap behind the plate but also leaving a void on the field as a team leader as he hit over .300 and with a slugging percentage and on-base percentage of over .500. To make up for the seniors who graduated, the team will rely on players such as Bruce Steel, Anthony Zaleski, Daniel Cole, Luis Bestero, Patrick Foley and Tyler Krull. Zaleski batted over .400 last year, while Krull was the ace. Besteiro had a slugging percentage of around .500.

Newman will play at Olympic Heights at 7 p.m. Monday in preparation for Thursday’s game with St. Andrew’s.

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