Titanic Win For Nova, Avenging Earlier Loss To St. Thomas

The Nova Titans are not used to being on the losing end of a long losing streak in a series match up. That is what made Friday night’s game against St. Thomas all the more intriguing. The Raiders had beaten the Titans four straight times coming in to their second meeting of the season.

Ronnie Patella made sure that recent history would not repeat itself. The Titans senior pitcher threw a complete game shutout, helping Nova avenge their only loss of the season. Timely hitting and another strong defensive performance carried Nova to a 3-0 district win over St. Thomas.

Two weeks ago, the Raiders defeated the Titans 6-5 in eleven innings, in what has been described as the best high school game in Broward this season. On Friday, Nova had revenge on their minds, and that revenge was realized after Patella struck out Andrew Hernandez to end the game.

Rewind to the first inning and Nova scored what would prove to be the only run they would need on this night. Zakk Leonetti led off the game with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch from Raiders starter Mike Gaither. After a Zach Kleiman walk and a successful sacrifice bunt by Cory Graf, George Gugino grounded out to first, scoring Leonetti.

Gaither appeared to be uncomfortable on the mound right from the start, looking several times at the mound during his warm-up throws before the first inning began. Despite the apparent uncomfortableness, Gaither managed to only give up one run in 2.1 innings. Raiders Head Coach Robert Lawson still has confidence in his right-hander, and knows he has the mental toughness to bounce back.

“He may have just put a little too much pressure on himself,” said Lawson. “He wanted to do well so bad, and sometimes you just squeeze it a bit too much, but he’s going to be fine, and we’re going to get him right back out there next week.”

As for the Titans, they had no such problems with their starter. Patella controlled the game from the beginning and the only real threat he faced was in the fifth. St. Thomas catcher john McNamara led off the inning with a walk. After a strikeout, consecutive singles by Hernandez and Ryan Reyes loaded the bases, Patella had to dig deep to hold the 1-0 lead.

Patella struck out Edmund Mussa for the second out of the inning, and then got Jake Rudock to ground to third to end the inning. The threat was the last that the raiders would pose, and Patella closed the final two innings in order to give the Titans the 3-0 win.

“I get a lot of ground balls, and I just let them hit the ball, throw strikes, and rely on my defense to make plays,” said Patella, when describing the game plan coming in against St. Thomas. “My fastball was running good tonight, and I was getting the curve ball over for strikes early in the count, which helped out a lot.”

The Titans extended the lead in the fifth when they scored two runs on two hits. Graf had the big hit of the inning, a single to right-center. Skylar Fox brought the second run home in the inning when he was hit by a pitch.

Nova may have made the final much worse had it not been for Raiders reliever Jimmy Wright. The junior came in with the bases loaded and nobody out in the fifth, and proceeded to strike out the side to end the threat.

For Nova, it was their eleventh win of the season, to only one loss. The Titans extended what is becoming a historically amazing streak with their eleventh shutout of the regular season. Nova pitchers also threw two shutouts in the pre-season, and after shutting down St. Thomas, the Titans have answered the critics that have bashed Nova’s schedule as a reason for their pitching and defense perfection this year.

A win over St. Thomas is always special for the Titans faithful, but Head Coach Pat McQuaid understands that rivalries are built out of respect, and no two teams have more respect for each other than the Titans and Raiders.

“It’s just a good rivalry,” said McQuaid, of the intense battles his team and St. Thomas have had over the years. “They know our kids, and we know their kids. It’s not a hostile rivalry. We respect them, they respect us. Coach Lawson does a great job, and it’s just fun to play them. It brings the best out of both teams.”

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