St Thomas Sends Statement In 7-1 Win Over McCarthy

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St. Thomas Manager Joey Wardlow has stressed throughout the preseason that the 2022 version of the Raiders is built on depth on the mound, and a strong defense.

On Monday afternoon, in the opener of the HSBN First Pitch Elite Invitational tournament, St. Thomas had both the pitching and the defense on display. They also added in timely, two-out hitting, on their way to a 7-1 win over Archbishop McCarthy.

“The difference in the game today was our two-out hits,” said Wardlow. “Getting those two runs early got us off to a good start, and allowed everyone to settle into the game. Being able to keep the foot on the pedal was key today, because a team like McCarthy can string runs together at any time.”

Getting the opening day assignment on the mound for the Raiders was Anthony Ciscar. The sophomore answered the call, going 3.2, allowing only two hits, and no runs.

“My plan today was to just throw strikes and get ahead of batters,” said Ciscar. “Let the defense behind me work, and give us a chance until our offense can score runs. We scored those two runs early, and that helped us get momentum in the game.”

The game started uneventful for Mavericks ace Andrew Ildefonso, who recorded the first two outs of the game via a strikeout and groundout.

Roger Vergara then singled, followed by a Giovanny Adames double, plating Vergara with the games first run. Anthony Fimiano then singled in Adames, and the Raiders had an early 2-0 lead.

Fimiano ended with two of St. Thomas’ six hits on the day.

“We knew we were facing a tough pitcher, and the goal was to put the ball in play and make something happen,” said Famiano. “Scoring those first two runs, we were able to get the lead, and then we played our game after that. It was a good team win.”

For McCarthy, they couldnt get anything going offensively off Ciscar, or reliver Alexander Llinas, who threw the final three innings for St. Thomas. Llines gave up four hits, and one earned run.

The 7-1 final plays well for St. Thomas as they look to advance to the championship game of the tournament Friday night. With runs against being the first tiebreaker among possible 2-0 teams, the one run given up gives the Raiders a leg up going into their second game on Wednesday against American Heritage-Delray.

“We can’t worry yet about the championship game, because we know we have another tough game Wednesday against a real good team,” said Wardlow. “We have to stay focused on one game at a time in a tournament like this. If we are lucky enough to get to the title game later in the week, we have a lot of arms, and we may even throw four or five guys, an inning each.”

While the Raiders dream of a possible tourney championship. the Mavericks will get back to basics.

“We didn’t play very well today,” said McCarthy Manager Aaron Vorachek. “But I told these guys after the game, there is a lot of baseball to be played this year. You can’t expect to come into a tournament like this, with all the teams being high quality, and not expect to have some bumps in the road. The goal of the season is to get better as it goes along, and hopefully be playing your best baseball at the end.”

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