Arpin’s HR Lifts St. Thomas Past Nova In Semifinal

When William Arpin came to the plate for the final time on Wednesday night, the Raiders were riding a wave of momentum that had just put the hosts back on top.

With one swing of the bat Arpin took the team the rest of the way.

The senior left-hander jumped on a 2-1 fastball and lifted it deep to right field to carry into the night and over the wall, sending Carter White and Gary Mattis in ahead of him on the three-run home run that would stand as the deciding runs.

St. Thomas would hold off one final rally attempt to hang on for an 8-5 victory over rival Nova in a Class 7A regional semifinal Wednesday night at St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale.

“He’d just thrown a curveball away for a ball, and he had to come in with a fastball. It was right down the middle and I was looking for it,” said Arpin. “With a man on second and third, I was just trying to get a base hit to score two. I didn’t try to do too much, just put the ball in play, and it flew out.”

After dashing out of the box initially on the hit, Arpin slowed his stride around the bases on the rewarding moment that would help lead the Raiders (18-6) to a regional final showdown with West Boca on Friday at St. Thomas.

But Arpin admitted that he thought of his father in that moment and how he has been taught to always play with class, and he did not allow himself any extroverted moment of celebration as he came around to touch home as his excited teammates mobbed him.

In a rivalry as deep as this one, it is understandable that each side has developed such respect for the other. Every year these programs seem to cross paths at some point in the playoffs to end one another’s seasons. But with this victory St. Thomas sweeps all four contests this year.

“I’ve been on varsity since my sophomore year and we lost to them the last two years,” said Arpin. “So to get revenge this year four times, it was nice. We knew we were going to face their left-hander. He throws good off-speed stuff and keeps everything down. You’ve just got to put it in play.”

The left-hander was Nova junior starter Nick Martinez, who battled into the fifth inning in his 11th and final start of the season. Martinez (6-2) used a disciplined approach against the Raiders, fighting to keep Nova in the game while scattering eight hits and recording six strikeouts.

“We’re an aggressive team, and we try to put pressure on the other team,” St. Thomas Manager Troy Cameron said. “He was able to do good things to keep us from doing a lot of those things. He threw a lot of curveballs to keep us off-balance. I tip my hat to him. He did a good job. We did what good teams do. We waited it out and pounced on our opportunities. Fortunately, we got that big hit.”

The big hit Cameron was referring to was not Arpin’s home run, but actually the hit that came off the bat of the freshman Gary Mattis just ahead of that.

The Raiders had just taken the lead when Rafael Amanau scored on a double-steal play between first and third, and Mattis rolled an RBI single to left field to bring in Alec Spano and help extend that lead.

“Gary Mattis got the two-out single. He had a great at-bat,” Cameron said. “He scored a run to bring it to Arpin, and when Will hit that home run it kind of deflated them.”

After the seesaw way the game had gone, this five-run inning would help the Raiders take control for good.

“We stopped them from stealing and we stopped them from bunting. We had more base hits than they did, and we should have won the ball game,” Titans Manager Pat McQuaid said. “Our kids came out and did what they had to do. They didn’t give up and they played hard. That’s how baseball goes sometimes. Give them credit; they beat us.”

The Titans (14-9) drew first blood in the top of the second inning, when Lewis Rodriguez lifted a pitch from Raiders starter Frank Rubio deep to right-center field for a solo home run and a 1-0 Nova lead.

“They had a chance to erase the three times that we beat them by beating us tonight,” said Cameron. “The kids really wanted to play them again because of the rivalry, and I’m glad of the way we came out to play.”

The Raiders answered right back in the bottom half of the second frame, as junior catcher Teddy Meissner bounced a standup double off the left field wall to put the lead runner in scoring position with no outs.

Spano came on to run for Meissner for the first of three times, as Meissner was 2-for-3 with a walk and Spano scored all three times he came on to serve as his courtesy runner. After Spano went to third on an errant pickoff attempt, Ross Thibeault drove him home on a sacrifice flyout.

In a game with so many big moments and crucial plays, it was actually a strikeout that helped to spark the Raiders offense.

Sophomore Carter White came to bat in the bottom of the fourth after Meissner had singled and was replaced by Spano, and Thibeault also singled to put a pair of runners on base. White locked in to a duel with Martinez, working the count full and continually fouling off pitches before being called out on strikes on the 11th pitch.

“You don’t always have to be successful in the at-bat to have a great at-bat,” Cameron said. “He saw a lot of pitches, and he did a great job of extending that at-bat and battling up there. When these kids get to two strikes, that’s all we ask is that they try to do something, put the ball in play, foul it off, do whatever you can do. That’s exactly what he did. He ended up striking out, but he tired him out a bit and it gave us a chance to get it going that inning. It worked out.”

The entire Raiders lineup seemed to have been paying attention during White’s at-bat, as the hitters all mimicked his approach going forward, shortening their swings while also letting the pitches come deeper into the zone before swinging on them.

Arpin worked a walk to turn the lineup back over, and then Peter Nicoletto bounced an RBI single to center to put the Raiders back on top at 3-2.

Martinez had been pitching effectively, but in the fourth he needed 28 pitches in all, and this factor would work to bring an end to his outing in the fifth.

The damage had been done behind him, but Carter White had done his part to help make it happen.

“He hasn’t gotten the at-bats I would have loved to have given him this season,” Cameron admitted. “But he’s really been swinging the bat a whole lot better over the last month. It was just a great at-bat there.”

The Titans had a similar offensive approach, and they were equally successful in putting runs on the scoreboard to stay in the contest. Nova put runners on in every inning, forcing the host pitchers into the stretch for most of the night.

Kyle Pangallo had an RBI single to drive home Ryan Merante in the third, and Jose Garcia came in on an error in the fifth to tie things up at 3-3.

Even after the Raiders pulled away, Nova battled back in the sixth as Cole Habig led off with a shot off the left field wall that went for a double, and then moved to third on a single from Rodriguez.

Ben Torres drove one deep, where the center fielder Nicoletto made the catch in the air as he fell back into the outfield wall, leaving him no chance to attempt a throw as Habig trotted home on the play.

Patrick Hubert came on as a pinch-hitter, and as he has done all season long with his limited opportunities, the senior came through with a single that extended the inning.

Hubert was 4-for-9 on the season, primarily batting as a pinch-hitter each time.

Rodriguez scored on an error after Merante put the ball in play, but the Raiders were able to escape the inning without any further damage to then turn things over to left-handed ace Alec Byrd.

In just his second relief appearance of the season, Byrd showcased his dominance in striking out the side to record his first save of the season and send the Raiders one win away from a return trip to the state tournament.

Meanwhile, the Titans are left wondering what could have been after a game with so many close calls and big plays.

But for a young team that came a win shy of reaching the exact same point as last year’s record-setting squad, this year’s Titans squad did their part to maintain the standard the program has come to expect and crave.

“They all grew as a team. They were all inexperienced, and we had a whole new infield,” McQuaid said. “These kids got better as the year went on. It’s always disappointing when you lose, and the season is over for the seniors. They gave it their hearts, and that’s all you can ask. We just hate to lose to St. Thomas.”

In such a big game between such close rivals, it was not surprising that the crowd was at capacity on Wednesday night, with both sides getting animated and exhibiting baseball passion. Even as play on the field continued to tug emotions back and forth, in the sixth inning the home announcers treated the fans by playing Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline,” to which the bulk of the crowd happily sang along in cheerful unison.

The night also ran into several perils, as twice the game had to be halted after a light on the right sideline malfunctioned to send right field thrust into darkness. Partly due to these delays pushing the game so that players were still on the field at 10:15 p.m., the game was then also briefly stopped after the field’s sprinkler system came on at its scheduled time.

Each time the light went out, it resulted in nearly a 20-minute delay that left each side working to stay loose and ready to retake the field.

“What can we do? It’s out of our control,” said Arpin. “We are not electricians or whatever. We can’t do anything about it. It’s all just external factors.”

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