HYANNIS – The St. John Paul II Lions answered any and all critics Friday night at McKeon Park, plating 19 unanswered runs after staking Barnstable High five runs in the first for a 19-5 finale that the Red Raiders may not soon forget.
St. John Paul II’s Joe Oriola went the distance in the Lions’ 19-5 rout over Barnstable High Friday night at McKeon Park in Hyannis.
Phil Garceau/Capecod.com Sports Photos
Facing its first true test of the season, the young St. John Paul II baseball team showed that despite graduating nearly the entirety of last season’s roster, the Blue & Gold are ready to defend their 2014 Division 4 state title.
The Lions spotted Barnstable five runs in the opening inning, four of them unearned, but the hosts responded with 19 unanswered runs as they coasted to a bold, 19-5 victory over the Red Raiders at McKeon Park Friday evening in front of the most well-attended high school baseball crowd on the Cape this spring.
Right-hander Joe Oriola baffled the Red Raiders lineup, surrendering only five hits in the game while allowing one earned run and striking out seven. More impressively, Oriola showed trust in his defense after his infield committed three consecutive errors in the first inning, directly resulting in four unearned Red Raider runs to cross the plate.
“It’s not what I expected, obviously, the score, but we are a work in progress,” St. John Paul II head coach Mark Santos said. “I think we are a talented team but we are young and I think that showed in the first inning in the bright lights on the big stage, it might have been a little too early.”
After the first-inning miscues, Oriola forced four groundouts over the next two innings, showing that he had complete faith in his teammates.
The Lions committed only one error over the final six innings.
“I just believed in all my teammates, I’m best friends with everyone on my team,” Oriola explained. “We’re basically a brotherhood and there’s no one I’d rather be out there with.”
Barnstable High’s Ryan Bruning took the loss versus St. John Paul II Friday night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
The Lions were staring uphill at a five-run deficit before taking their first swing of the bat, but timely hitting and defensive miscues on the Red Raider side allowed the Lions to push across five runs of their own in the opening inning.
Johnny Warden highlighted the inning with a two-run double, while Jake Good tied the game at five with a suicide squeeze from the eight-spot.
“Whenever you are down that early, we weren’t trying to get five runs,” Santos explained. “I told them we can’t get that back in one swing and we caught a couple of breaks and they made a couple of miscues.”
The Lions scored in every inning of the game, taking a 7-5 lead in the second on a sacrifice fly from Eric Delrosso and a bases-loaded walk issue to Warden pushed across another. Matt Santos added a run in the third with an RBI single scoring Bobby Higgins.
St. John Paul II added two more in the fourth, but broke the game open in the fifth when four Lion runs pushed their lead to 14-5, highlighted by a two-run double from Keith Campbell.
Oriola appeared to gain velocity as the game went on, retiring seven consecutive batters between the fourth and sixth innings, before allowing a pair of hits in the seventh from Andrew Atsalis and Jackson Badot when the game was out of reach.
“He just kept throwing strikes and I think that’s a testament to Joe,” Santos said. “He’s a gamer and I think if we want to get to where we want to be, we need a lot from everyone but he’s going to be important.”
Barnstable High starting pitcher Ryan Bruning took the loss. All totaled, the visitors used four pitchers on the night in an effort to stop the bleeding but the infield miscues continued through the end of the game as first-year head coach Ryan Kinski emptied his bench and played virtually everyone he had. Noticeably absent from the Red Raider dugout was Kinski’s junior righty ace Eric Holzman who was waylaid with an illness following Thursday night’s complete-game win versus Duxbury. Holzman turned in the seven-inning gem with a dislocated shoulder (opposite his throwing arm) and was the personification of athletic stoicism in the victory.
Barnstable and St. John Paul II will meet again May 16 at Barnstable High. Last season, the Lions defeated the Red Raiders at home before Barnstable got revenge on its home field, ending the Lions’ chances at a Super 8 berth.
— Story contributed by sportswriter Phil Garceau and edited by Capecod.com Sports Editor Sean Walsh.
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