Chaminade baseball's Danny Nawrocki flashes leather, shows off power to help Flyers reach CHSAA championship series
Chaminade’s Daniel Nawrocki celebrates after hitting a solohome run in the fourth inning of a 4-1 win over Kellenberg in the CHSAA baseball semifinals at Farmingdale State College on Monday. Credit: Jonathan Singh
Two weeks ago, Chaminade's Danny Nawrocki came up empty when he dove for a flyball in centerfield against Kellenberg. The ball rolled all the way to the wall for a three-run, inside-the-park home run.
In Monday's NSCHSAA playoff game, Nawrocki had a decision to make. Kellenberg had runners on first and second with Richie LaVacca at the plate representing the tying run.
When LaVacca laced a line drive to shallow center, Nawrocki didn’t hesitate. The senior sprinted in and to his right, fully laid out and came up with a spectacular catch to end the sixth inning of No. 5 Chaminade’s 4-1 victory over No. 3 Kellenberg at Farmingdale State.
“I knew the risk, but I got a really good jump on it and I kind of just went with my gut and went for it,” Nawrocki said. “It was just so much excitement. The guys were going crazy. It was awesome.”
Chaminade (14-11) advanced to the best-of-three league championship series, which begins on Monday, May 26 at Hofstra. Kellenberg (15-7) will play an elimination game on Wednesday.
The Flyers were coming off an 8-3 win over top-seeded St. Dominic on Sunday, where they scored seven runs in the top of the seventh.
Chaminade’s bats were dormant early against Kellenberg lefty Eric Ressegger, who retired the first 10 batters his face. But with one out in the fourth inning, Chaminade's Collin Anderson provided a spark with a double that one-hopped the leftfield fence. It was the first of four straight hits.
“We’ve been saying all year, ‘If we can get the lineup back to [Anderson], good things are gonna happen,’ ” Flyers coach Patrick Kemp said. “The fact that he got up and hit that double, the momentum just comes back our way.”
Nolan Fernandez followed with a single and Kentucky commit Michael Gardner scorched a double to left, driving in Anderson to tie the score at 1. Colin Cashin then lined a single down the leftfield line to drive in Fernandez and Gardner and give Chaminade a 3-1 lead.
Nawrocki tacked on another run with a leadoff home run in the top of the fifth.
“It seems that we are battling back a lot in the late innings and that’s the kind of team we are. We’re resilient,” Cashin said. “When we’re down, we’re not gonna harp on being down. We just want to create good at-bats. It starts with one guy and from there, you just pass the baton.”
Carson Fessler drove in LaVacca on an infield single to give Kellenberg a 1-0 lead in the second.
Chaminade's Carlos Pereira struck out five and allowed one run in 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. Jack Pfeifer recorded the final five outs for the save.
The regular season didn’t quite go as the Flyers planned, but they have given themselves a chance to win their first league title since winning three in a row in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
“I’ve got to credit my staff. We never quit on the kids and the kids never quit on us,” Kemp said. “When you’re up and down the entire season and you get into a losing streak, the easy thing to do is say, ‘The school year is over. Seniors have been done for two weeks, let’s just enjoy the beach.’ They keep showing up to practice and taking in everything that we have to offer.”
Matt Lindsay is a high school sports reporter who joined Newsday in 2022 after graduating from Stony Brook University.
