From Fisher Field on the campus of Baldwin Wallace University.
Berea, Ohio - After a Varsity Game that was played under a mostly sunny sky, the Junior Varsity Baseball Cats took on Archbishop Hoban's Jayvees under persistent periods of rain and declining temperatures late Saturday afternoon and early evening.
Before we cover some of the highlights, this corner tips his many baseball caps to Saint Ignatius' outstanding Head JV Coach Cody Dearth and his baseball-savvy Assistant Coaches Steve Nelson and Tim McCoy '12 for putting together another spring of success.
After a 24-0 season on the JV level last year, the 2018 Junior Varsity Baseball Cats finished 22-2 against a who's who schedule from around the area and the state.
The JV Cats were able to achieve another high level of success despite having some of their top players called up to the Varsity at various times, including gifted sophomores Nick Fletcher, Luke Lashutka, Erik Daugenti and Danny Castenir.
As for Saturday's Junior Varsity season finale, some savvy base running by Jack Whelan and a clutch RBI single from Jake Lang enabled Saint Ignatius to take a 3-0 lead over the JV Knights from Archbishop Hoban in the bottom of the first inning.
With Hoban runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the second inning, Whelan, son of one of Saint Ignatius' top Varsity Assistant Coaches, John Whelan, made a sliding stop of sharp ground ball in short right field and was still able to get enough on the throw for the 4-3 out.
A Whelan walk, a base hit by Castenir and a wild pitch helped extend the 'Cats' lead to 4-0 entering the top of the third inning.
The JV Knights, now 11-8 with still some games to be played, closed to 4-1 in the top of the third inning.
Undaunted, the savvy sophomores from Saint Ignatius tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth when Castenir was hit by pitch, Fletcher singled to right field, Lang brought home Castenir off a fielder's choice, Fletcher stole third base and then scored off a passed ball.
Fletcher was coming off a brilliant two-hit shutout in the Varsity Wildcats' 5-0 victory over Canton Central Catholic at Classic Park on Friday evening. It was Nick's Varsity pitching debut.
With their faithful enduring the wet and cold weather, the JV Cats scored their seventh and final run off more heads-up base running from Whelan, who was hit by a pitch leading off the bottom of the sixth inning, and a sacrifice fly from the bat of Brendan Bedinghaus.
William Spear, Bendinghaus and Connor Mays turned a sweet 5-4-3 double play in the top of the sixth.
On the mound, junior Nate Hubbard went four innings with three strikeouts and one earned run, and Castenir worked three innings with no runs and two strikeouts.
Lang had two hits, two RBI and drew a walk on the evening and Castenir was 2-for-3 with a walk. Bedinghaus and Mays delivered RBIs in a line score that read 7-7-1 for the JV Cats and 1-2-1 for the Knights' Jayvees.
This corner wishes to again acknowledge the great work of Saint Ignatius' Junior Varsity Team Manager Nick Schmitz, who did yet another wonderful job scoring the game under what were trying weather conditions, and to say THANK YOU one more time to Coaches Dearth, Nelson and McCoy for the privilege and pleasure to cover and report on the Junior Varsity Wildcats. Wow! What a future Saint Ignatius Baseball holds.