At the end of the third inning, it looked like St. Raymond still had not recovered from its walk-off loss to Fordham Prep in its previous game last Sunday. Two innings and 10 runs later, the Ravens offense proved otherwise.
“We just try to put the bat on the ball and make solid contact, that’s all we try to do,” Ravens first baseman David Sanchez said. “We were able to make adjustments after we went once through the lineup and we strung some big hits together.”
Through three innings, St. Ray’s had been held hitless by Iona Prep starter Joe Finnegan, but that all changed beginning in the fourth frame and continued into the fifth.
The St. Ray’s offense simply exploded for 10 runs on 12 hits through those two innings as the Ravens battered four different Gael pitchers and took home a crucial 10-4 victory in CHSAA Class AA baseball Saturday in The Bronx. After a week filled with rain outs, St. Ray’s (8-3) had plenty of time to reflect on its loss to Fordham Prep last week, something that coach Marc DeLuca believes helped fuel his team’s fire.
“We’ve been in the gym every day in place of the rainouts,” he said. “We went over what we did wrong last week and we had time to put it behind us. I expected a good game, but I didn’t expect 10 runs.”
The Ravens began their offensive onslaught in an inconspicuous way in the fourth inning. An Adam De La Cruz single and stolen base followed by a Kelvin Fuentes base hit tied the game at 1, but Sanchez’s first of two doubles on the day as well as a run-scoring single by Joshua Vargas and a bases-loaded walk by Cheyenne Reyes gave St. Ray’s a 3-1 lead after the fourth inning, a lead it would never relinquish.
After Iona Prep (5-5) cut the deficit to one in the top of the fifth, St. Ray’s quickly ended any thought of a Gaels comeback by hanging seven runs on the board in the bottom of the frame. Sanchez drove in the first two runs of the inning with his second double, knocking Finnegan out of the game. Three straight singles and a double by the Ravens offense sent reliever Stephen Rizzaro packing after recording just one out, and Leo Bravo welcomed Michael Cavallo, the third pitcher of the inning, with a two-run double.
The nearly 20-minute long inning saw 11 hitters come to the plate and by the end of the frame, it was obvious the Fordham Prep loss was behind the Ravens.
“This is real St. Ray’s baseball,” Sanchez said. “We’ve forgotten about the Fordham Prep loss and we’re going to build off of this win going forward.”
“It was great to watch. It took a lot of my weight off of my shoulders for sure,” Ravens starter Anthony Colon added. “It gave me some extra confidence, but I always start with confidence anyway.”
Colon, who committed to Manhattanville this week, once again was an unsung hero for St. Ray’s. After dominating Fordham Prep for the better part of six innings, he picked up right where he left off against Iona Prep. He held the Gaels to just two hits through the first four innings and surrendered just three runs on a mere five hits over the course of his complete-game victory.
If the Ravens offense continues to produce as it did on Saturday, they will be a force to be reckoned with, but Colon believes that it all begins and ends with pitching.
“It always starts on the mound,” he said. “Our staff always works hard and we’re trying to win our division. But I had that bounce-back mentality today, just trying to start another winning streak.”