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Some say familiarity breeds contempt, but for the baseball players at Ss. Neumann-Goretti, 1736 S. 10th St., and Prep Charter, 1928 Point Breeze Ave., high schools, many who grew up playing with and against one another, it has spawned respect.
The athletes converged May 30 at Richie Ashburn Field, 20th Street and Pattison Avenue, to battle for the Class AA City Title, with the parochial representatives notching a 5-2 victory to claim their third-straight such crown and secure District 12’s top AA seed in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament.
“It feels great to beat a local team for this, especially since we know how much heart and talent those guys have,” winning pitcher Joe Kinee, a First-Team All-Catholic senior, said. “We really wanted to take home another plaque and had just enough to keep them from getting it done.”
The University of Maine signee and his East Passyunk Crossing-based Saints advanced to the hyped affair the previous day by downing Montgomery County’s Springfield 4-3 in a sub-region playoff at Temple University’s Ambler campus. With May 20’s 6-1 setback to Archbishop Wood having ended their hopes for a third-consecutive Catholic League championship, the 15-8 performers entered with more than bragging rights on the line. West Passyunk’s 10-7 Huskies looked to add another highlight to a fruitful season that had included becoming the Public League’s AA titlist and advancing to the league semifinals May 20, where they fell 3-2 to now-three-time defending champion Frankford, whom they had swept in the regular season, and called on ace right-hander Peter Piccoli to post zeroes.
The First-Team Division A selection transferred from Neumann-Goretti two years ago but felt no extra ambition to defeat his former school.
“I just wanted to win no matter who we were playing,” the resident of 15th Street and Oregon Avenue said. “My plan was to trust in my fielders and keep them off balance. We lost but we’re proud of our effort.”
His colleagues earnestly displayed their preparation in the bottom of the second when junior right fielder Rob Freer and junior catcher Christian Coppola, Second-Team honorees, reached base via a hit-by-pitch and a walk. After Kinee, a resident of the 2400 block of South 16th Street, fanned the next two hitters, he surrendered a pass to senior left fielder Kyon Anderson. The Saints had failed to score with the bases loaded in the top of the frame, but sophomore shortstop Keegan McKoskey made sure his squad did not mirror its opponent by stroking a two-run single.
“The whole year we’ve been shocking people, and I see us as underrated,” the resident of the 2400 block of South Fourth Street and Second-Team choice, whose unit earned District 12’s AA second seed, said. “With that at-bat, I was looking to get us the momentum.”
The Saints began their quest for supremacy in the fourth. Having left five on base, they hoped to find their own hero after junior left fielder Charlie Jerla doubled and senior third baseman Nick Simon singled with one out. A debated balk plated the first figure, and freshman center fielder Brian Verratti’s single brought home the latter to tie the score. A grand opportunity for the Huskies to regain control slipped away in the fifth when Freer stranded runners at second and third with a strikeout. Bent on making the hosts pay for their missed chance, the Saints entered the sixth with smashing fastballs and breaking hearts on their mind.
“We’ve had some issues with stepping up at the right time,” Jerla said. “We knew that inning could decide it all.”
The resident of the 200 block of Dickinson Street started the frame with a single and stole second. When sophomore third baseman Joe Suppa mishandled a toss from Piccoli off a sacrifice attempt, Jerla rushed home. Following a Verratti walk and a passed ball, senior second baseman Joey Glennon lofted a sacrifice fly. Looking to panic the Huskies even more, Verratti swiped third and received kudos for his decision after a wild pitch allowed him to score.
Admitting his performance seemed more of a battle than a display of precision, Kinee recorded his only three-up, three-down inning in the sixth. The right-hander could not match that feat in the seventh when, after retiring Anderson, he threw 10 straight balls, forcing coach Mike “Big Zoom” Zolk to lift him in place of sophomore left-hander Pat Doudican. The new hurler induced Suppa to sky a pop to Glennon and reveled when Verrati squeezed senior center fielder Mike Lyons’ ball.
“I loved going against another South Philly Team,” Jerla, who stroked three hits, said of the day. “With the fact that we lost eight seniors from last year’s team, I wanted to be a main guy and be a team player.”
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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