St. Anthony's baseball flips script to win CHSAA elimination game

St. Anthony’s had returned to the scene of where last season ended against Kellenberg in an CHSAA losers’ bracket elimination game. The Friars were facing the same team in another win-or-else playoff game, and it was again at St. John the Baptist because their field was unavailable.

But there was something very different for Tuesday’s baseball rematch. The top-seeded Friars chose the first-base dugout instead of repeating their 2022 view from the third-base side.

“So we got away from the deja vu,” coach Paul Parsolano said.

This time, St. Anthony’s won, beating No. 4 Kellenberg, 10-1.

“It absolutely worked,” Parsolano said. “I can’t even give myself credit. It was my assistant coaches, Greg Naccari and Frank Trimarco and Tyler Patane. All three of those guys, they texted me and insisted on being on the third-base side.”

It also helped that Torin Kassebaum allowed just the one run and four hits and fanned six in six-plus innings and that Dan Scubla and Kevin Baez delivered two hits and three RBIs apiece.

So now comes another elimination game that will decide the opponent for No. 2 Chaminade in the title round. The Friars (15-6) will face fifth-seeded Holy Trinity — the team that beat them, 1-0, Sunday and sent them to the losers’ bracket — at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Mitchel Athletic Complex.

“We’re hoping we’ve got a little mojo now,” Parsolano said.

Kassebaum (4-0 1.24 ERA) got them started, pitching out of a bases-loaded, two-out traffic jam in the first.

“To get a run in there against a kid like Kassebaum, it changes the whole narrative of the entire game,” Firebirds coach Pat Miles said. “So once that didn’t happen, it was kind of an uphill battle offensively from there.”

Kellenberg (13-8) didn’t score until Paul Napolitano’s sixth-inning sacrifice fly.

“I love these games,” Kassebaum said. “These are the best. I love going with pressure. It fuels me.”

St. Anthony’s backed the junior lefty with five runs in the second, all charged to starter Matt Reiter, who pitched 1 2/3.

Scubla singled in the first run. There was also a sac fly and three bases-loaded walks.

Baez added a two-run double in the third, and Scubla rocked a two-run double in a three-run sixth.

“I think this is definitely what our offense can and should be doing in every game,” Scubla said. “I think we’ll continue to do it for the rest of the playoffs.”