St. Thomas Slugs Its Way To Big Win Over Reagan

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It has been an emotional season for the St. Thomas Aquinas baseball family. With the playoffs now here, the team got a big lift at just the right moment with the return of Hitting Coach Mike Rodriguez. Rodriguez had been away in St. Louis since just before the start of the season in order to care for his cancer-stricken father. The team has rallied all year with tributes and charities to aid in relief for the Rodriguez family, as well as for many others also afflicted by this terrible disease.

On Wednesday night his presence provided a huge emotional jolt and the Raiders rode those emotions to a big 13-0 victory over Reagan in a 7A regional quarterfinal, played on their home field at St. Thomas Aquinas High. The offense exploded to life, as every starter reached base to contribute in a game that was shortened by the mercy rule.

St. Thomas (18-6) will now host American in a 7A regional semifinal Tuesday night, after the Patriots advanced following a win over South Broward Wednesday afternoon. The Raiders are hoping Coach Rodriguez will remain with the team and continue to inspire both their bats and their spirits.

“Like I said before, these kids are tired of listening to us; we’ve been here all year. So Mike coming back definitely gives us a lift,” St. Thomas Manager Troy Cameron said. “It’s just another set of eyes and another experienced player and coach, and it has been a lift for all of us. We’re fortunate to have him back and now we’re trying to talk him into staying.”

Exemplifying the emotional boost that they all received with Rodriguez’s surprise return was shortstop Gary Mattis. The sophomore opened the contest by making an incredible leaping grab to rob Bison leadoff hitter Jeffrey Nistal on a liner to shallow left field. Mattis carried those emotions right into his first trip to the plate, as he jumped on a 1-1 offering and drove it over the left field fence for a solo home run and all the runs the Raiders would ultimately need.

Mattis is a big part of what the team does. Coming into his sophomore season he admitted he wanted to get off to a blazing start and make a name for himself just like his manager and former Raiders star shortstop Troy Cameron once did. While instead he got off to a slow start this year, Mattis credits Coach Rodriguez in helping him and the rest of the guys get on track at the plate.

“My job is to be a leader on the team and help the team,” Mattis said. “What really helped us was Mike Rodriguez coming back down from St. Louis. He really helped our swings, because we were a little rusty. He meant everything to the team. All we do is just pray for his dad, because that is a serious thing with his dad having cancer. It has helped the team build up as a family; calling every night and telling him how everything goes, it just uplifts the spirits. When he came back it was just amazing and it really brought us up.”

The Raiders were just getting started. Alex Dickinson followed that up by smacking a solo home run to go back-to-back, pouring gasoline onto the enthusiastic explosion coming from the Raiders coaches, players and fans. Suddenly the team was up 2-0 and had a tidal wave of momentum working in their favor.

“I saw Gary hit it, and the last time I hit a home run he hit one right before me too,” said Dickinson. “I just knew the guy wouldn’t want to make mistakes, so I wasn’t too aggressive at first. But when he got down 2-0 I was just looking for one pitch, one spot. He gave me a cookie down the middle and I just put a good swing on it and it went.”

The Raiders second baseman has not often found himself in such a prominent spot in the lineup, as he too admitted to a slow offensive start to the season. But on Wednesday night he had worked his way back to be in position to make an impact right away.

“It feels amazing that the coaches have that trust in me,” Dickinson said. “We have a great lineup and all these guys could go anywhere in the lineup. We could have Gary hitting cleanup in the number four spot. So it feels good that the coaches have the trust in me to do the job.”

As so often happens in baseball games, once those first two guys got hot it rippled right down the entire Raiders lineup. St. Thomas batted all the way through the order in the first, pulling out 5-0 to take control. Christian Demby and Rafael Amanau had sac-fly RBIs and Juwuan Harris capped the big inning off with an RBI double.

“You can’t ask for a better start than that,” said Cameron. “Gary Mattis, in that first inning, makes a diving play, and then in his very first at bat leading off the inning he hits a home run. You know, that’s just how baseball goes. We get to see Gary everyday in practice making diving plays like that all the time, so for him to make that play in the game does not surprise us. But obviously it gets the crowd excited. Then he comes up in his next at bat with a little bit of adrenaline and a little bit of confidence. The baseball Gods always put that opportunity right there for you and he capitalized on it.”

It seemed like all the Raiders were capitalizing on this day, as they erupted for another big inning to put things away in the third. They piled on eight more runs in the frame, sending 12 batters to the plate in the process. Daniel Lowry had an RBI single, Nick Marchese drove in a pair with a big two-RBI double, and Demby had an RBI triple in the inning.

Lowry and Demby both finished 2-for-2 on the night, and both also scored once. Carter White tallied three runs for the Raiders and Cameron Krzeminski scored twice.

The run support was more than enough to back Marchese’s efforts on the mound, as the right-hander earned the complete-game, shutout victory. Marchese recorded five strikeouts on 80 pitches. He was also supported by inning-ending double plays to close out the final two frames.

Playing in its first regional playoff game in school history, the Bison (14-11) fell victims to a team that got hot and simply refused to cool off. Even while taking everything the Raiders could offer, the team remained poised and determined throughout. It was grit and determination that had gotten them this far, and the players refused to go down quietly. They put runners on base in each of the final four innings.

Raul Cortes led the way by accounting for both of his team’s hits, a double in the second inning and a single in the fourth.

“These guys think they can just show up and win it all in their first year,” said Reagan Manager JC Huguet. “No; it takes steps. With a program there are building blocks. The foundation is set and now we got to the second level here. Now we have to learn from this experience and we know what kind of competition there is up here in Broward, that it is very good competition. Now we have an idea and we got a taste of it. It’s a sour taste right now, but now we know what it’s like.”

While the Bison are left to regroup and look to make an even deeper run next season, the Raiders survive and remain on their quest to return to the state tournament this year. St. Thomas will now face a tremendous challenge in hosting an American program that has also made it its mission to return to the state finals again this season.

“It’s not worth going over to Fort Myers if you don’t have some tough teams like that along the way,” Cameron admitted. “We know they are a very good team and we know we are going to have to play our best to beat them. But let’s play them now and see what we’re made of. If we can put it together like we did tonight against them then we may earn that. At this point you are playing good teams no matter who you are playing, so we’re excited for the opportunity to keep going. It’s a good match up against American, we get to host it, and hopefully we have a good crowd. We’ll have two good teams playing the top of their game and I just hope we turn out on top.”

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