St. Thomas Aquinas Dominates Westland Hialeah 10-0

The St Thomas Aquinas baseball team handled the Westland Hialeah Wildcats in a meticulous manner on Thursday night. Playing on their home field, the Raiders used sharp pitching, patience at the plate, and speed on the base paths to overwhelm the Wildcats. Although held scoreless for the first two innings, St. Thomas kicked in and put on a clinic for the the next three innings.

The Raiders efficiently worked the count in many of their at bats, so much so, Wildcats starting pitcher Giovanni Arriera had thrown over 80 pitches by the bottom of the third inning. It was in this inning that St. Thomas broke out. Shortstop Gary Mattis led off with a single to right field. He stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. After a walk to Alex Dickinson, Nick Marchese drove Mattis in with a sacrifice fly to left field. Anthony Mulrine then hit a single to right field and designated hitter Carter White ripped a shot down the left field line to score Dickinson and Mulrine.

Leading 3-0 in the fourth, St. Thomas continued the pressure. Jawuan Harris led off the inning with a single to center field. He promptly stole second and third base. Mattis knocked Harris in with a single to center field. Mattis stole second base and advanced to third on an error. He was driven in when Dickinson lined a base hit to center field. Dickinson stole second and third base, and scored on an infield error.

When the Raiders were in the field they were led by sophomore pitcher Johnny Leone. Leone threw five innings of shutout ball. He gave up three hits and was in command the entire game.

“I didn’t know much about Westland Hialeah.” Leone stated. “I know a few from travel ball. But I knew they were a good team and I had to go out there and do my thing. And it was pretty easy with the scoring back up that my teammates provided me.”

St. Thomas put the game away in the bottom of the fifth. After a ground out, Cameron Krzeminski reached on an infield error. He stole second base and was driven home by a single to center by Harris. Harris stole second base and went to third on an infield hit by Dickinson. Marchese brought Harris home with a long double off the wall in center field. With two men on and two outs, Anthony Mulrine came to the plate and hit a long shot off the wall in center field to score Dickinson and Marchese, the tenth and deciding run.

Catcher Kevin Novoa had two hits for the Wildcats. Starting pitcher Giovanni Arriera was valiant in his attempt to stifle the dangerous Raider line up, but ran out of gas in the third inning. Freshman Evander Hernandez made two outstanding plays at third base.  

“Evander is a tough kid,” Westland Hialeah Manager Jose Alvarez stated. “He is a good kid too. He has a bright future.”

Dickinson scored three times for the Raiders while Harris and Mattis scored twice. White, Mulrine and Marchese each had two RBI to lead the balance Raider attack.

Westland Hialeah looks to regroup as they reached the regional playoffs with a team without a senior on the roster and look to build on this experience.

“We do not have any seniors on our squad this year,”  Alvarez said. “So hopefully we put up a better fight next year.”

St. Thomas moves on to face their rival, the Nova Titans, for the fourth time this year.  

“It’s a great rivalry, why not play them four times?” St. Thomas Manager Troy Cameron stated as he started planning for the next game.

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