VERO BEACH – The formula that had worked all season for the St. Edward’s of Vero Beach baseball team didn’t produce at the worst possible moment for the Pirates.
And it had more to do with the team in the visiting dugout than anything else.
Jupiter Christian rallied for eight runs in the final two innings to turn back the Pirates 11-7 in the Class 1A-Region 4 quarterfinals Saturday at Blue Diamond Field.
The seventh-seeded Eagles (10-9) move on to the best-of-3 regional semifinals Friday at sixth-seeded Brito.
After having its 12-game winning streak snapped, St. Edward’s ends one of its most successful seasons in school history at 16-4.
“I give all the credit to Jupiter Christian,” Pirates coach Gray Ange said. “They did what they had to do.”
Relief pitching offers little relief
For most of the season in the bigger games, St. Edward’s went with Caden Freedman to start and followed up with Nolan Ange, Graham Hutton and/or Reid Morris to close it out.
A sophomore right-hander Freedman worked the first 5 ⅔ innings, allowing five hits and four runs (three earned) while walking three and striking out six.
Freedman departed with a 7-4 advantage.
Nolan Ange, a left-handed eighth-grader, got the final out in the sixth.
In the seventh, Jupiter Christian opened with a single, double, double, walk, double, walk, error and three-run home run by No. 9 hitter Kyle Valcich.
“Caden is our guy and we come in with Nolan or Graham or Reid,” Coach Ange said. “We’ve had three guys that we’ve come in with. And it worked.
“Jupiter got the job done. Hat’s off to Jupiter Christian for finding a way.”
One of Coach Ange’s points of emphasis in his post-game speech was to emphasise the importance of strong relief behind Freedman, who finished the season 8-0 with a 1.41 earned run average and 49 strikeouts in 49 ⅔ innings.
“He’s a dawg,” Coach Ange said of Freedman. “He’s been that guy all year. I told our guys at the end, we can’t rely on him to go deep into games every single time. But he’s done it for us. We’ve got to be able to come in and throw up zeroes and get outs and not rely on him to go deep into every single game.”
Freedman threw 101 pitches, 65 strikes.
“Even when he didn’t have his best stuff this year, we always ran deep into games and gave us a chance,” Coach Ange said.
St. Edward’s gets to Jupiter Christian bullpen
The Pirates had a nice approach at the plate against 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior right-hander Carter Scott, who has committed to Palm Beach Atlantic.
Freedman helped himself in the first inning with an RBI double that scored Hutton, who opened the bottom of the first with a single.
St. Edward’s tacked on three more runs in the third inning to go up 4-0. Rodney Stephens had a bunt single and stole second. Nolan Ange also dropped a bunt for a hit placing runners on the corners. Stephens scored on the front end of a double steal. Freedman knocked in his second run of the game with a single. Younger brother Colton Freedman delivered a run-scoring single.
In four innings, Scott gave up seven hits and four runs (three earned). He tossed 50 pitches, 35 strikes. He came into the game with a 5-3 mark and 3.85 ERA in 40 innings.
“We felt really good about that,” Coach Ange said on getting Scott out of the game after four innings. “We prepared for him all week. We knew what he had. We had some good at bats against him and got his pitch count up and eventually got him out of the game. I was definitely happy about that.”
It proved helpful for the Pirates, who immediately added three runs against the Jupiter Christian bullpen. Freshman AJ Francis had a big two-run double and eventually scored on an error.
Pirates’ roster has no seniors 1 junior
There was plenty of history between the teams, who have played 21 times since 2006, including St. Edward’s opening game of this season.
The Pirates pinned a 14-4 loss on Jupiter Christian, which made five errors on Feb. 19.
The Eagles improved to 15-6 against St. Edward’s and have taken nine of the past 10 meetings.
St. Edward’s, which previously lost at Marathon, 6-5, on March 19, had piled up a dozen straight victories by a combined 203-50.
After winning their first district title in 30 years, the Pirates couldn’t advance in the regionals.
“It kinda stinks,” Coach Ange said. “This was probably – I don’t want to say worst game of the year – but a game where we didn’t have it. And it happened to be in the one-and-done playoff game. That kinda stinks, but it is what it is.”
On its roster of 19 players, St. Edward’s has 3 sixth-graders, 3 eighth-graders, 7 freshmen, 5 sophomores, 1 junior and no seniors.
“We’re a young group,” Coach Ange said. “It’s tough for them, but they’ve learned a lot this year with the schedule we had. They’ve learned how to win.”
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: St. Edward’s baseball falls to Jupiter Christian in regional opener
Reporting by Dennis Maffezzoli, Special to TCPalm / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
