St. Anthony's baseball sees its win streak snapped with loss to St. Francis Prep
St. Anthony's pitcher John Parpis pitches against St. Francis Prep on April 27, 2024. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
The St. Anthony’s baseball staff agreed that this was a lost opportunity. The Friars rode a five-game win streak into a weekend matchup with a St. Francis Prep club that had struggled in recent weeks.
The Friars planned on adding to an impressive streak that included wins over Commack, Molloy and two over Holy Trinity.
St. Francis Prep had other plans.
The Terriers rode the left arms of starter Joe Cappiello and relief man Matt Martell to a one-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over host St. Anthony’s Saturday in South Huntington.
The win evened St. Anthony’s NSCHSAA record (6-6) and improved the Terriers to 3-6. Martell, who usually starts, made his first relief appearance and threw two scoreless innings with three strikeouts for the save.
“We filled up the zone and Joe has natural movement on his pitches,” St. Francis Prep coach Rob McDermott said. “He did a nice job keeping them off balance. And then we brought in Martell to finish it. This is a huge win for the program.”
Cappiello worked the first five innings and allowed one hit, walked three and struck out one. The Friars advanced only one runner to third base the entire game. That came in the fourth inning when sophomore C.J. Alfano ripped a one-out line drive double over the head of left fielder Tom Stathopoulos.
Alfano moved to third on a groundout and, after Anthony Bono was walked to put runners at the corners, Cappiello induced a groundout from Adrian Tavarez to end the threat.
St. Anthony’s managed two baserunners over the final three innings.
“It was nothing fancy, but it was certainly effective,” St. Anthony’s coach Paul Parsolano said. “We never found any rhythm on offense. The starter was a crafty lefthander. We made no adjustments and he had us out on our front foot all game.”
The Terriers opened the scoring in the third inning. Leadoff man Justin Chong singled and came around to score on a long triple to right centerfield by Martell. The flyball got caught in a strong crosswind that carried it deep into the gap. Centerfielder Anthony Carlo closed on the ball and got his glove on it, but the catch would prove just out of his reach.
Martell then scored on Alex Guzman's groundout to third base. With the infield playing back, Martell ran on contact and scored to make it 2-0 against starter John Parpis, who went four innings and allowed three hits, four walks and struck out six.
“There weren’t many scoring opportunities,” McDermott said. “It was all about throwing strikes and playing tight defense.”
Chong again reached in the fifth. He walked, stole second and moved to third on a groundout. Guzman lined a one-hop rocket at shortstop Kevin Baez with the infield playing in. Baez picked the hot shot and fired to catcher Phil Mazzola to cut down the speedy Chong, who was diving headfirst across the plate.
“We played excellent defense, but we didn’t hit at all,” Parsolano said. “We were coming off our bye week and we just seemed off at the plate.”
Gregg Sarra is Newsday's high school sports editor and has been on the beat since the mid-1980s.
