Abraham focuses on basics in rivalry win over TC

Jesuit senior John Abraham held Tampa Catholic scoreless for five innings, striking out six to earn his second win of the year. 

By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor

TAMPA – Senior John Abraham turned in his best performance in a Jesuit uniform in front of a packed crowd at Hyer Family Park, as the Tigers managed to put up runs in non-traditional ways and turn away rival Tampa Catholic, 4-0 on Friday.

Abraham, a Florida State signee, worked around a leadoff single from Maddox King to start the game, weathered an error and a walk in the second and then seemed to cruise through his next three innings, giving up just one more hit and striking out six to earn his second win of the season. On the night, Abraham filled the zone with 46 of 59 pitches going for strikes.

“I knew the stands would be packed, and I went out and tried to just slow the game down,” Abraham said. “Get back to the basics … class was there today, but I admit I wasn’t all the way there. This was TC and you want to go get them every time and I feel like we did a good job with that.”

The Crusaders night started quickly as Maddox King singled on the opening pitch of the game.

Chased after just 1 1/3 innings and three runs allowed against Parkview last Saturday, Jesuit coach Miguel Menendez said he was looking for Abraham to find himself, but didn’t know how his senior would react in the historic rivalry game.

“John’s a senior and he’s been around, but for us he just hasn’t pitched a lot,” Menendez said. “This was his first shot against Tampa Catholic, so I figured the nerves might be there. But he got ahead, threw the breaking ball – his best pitch – for strikes, and he did a really good job.”

Tampa Catholic (3-2) came out ready to play and senior Danny Lazaro matched his counterpart through the first two innings, but in the third things took a decisive turn for the Crusaders.

Crusaders senior Danny Lazaro took a tough loss, giving up three unearned runs and striking out four in 2 2/3 innings of work.

Jesuit (6-0) junior DJ Pirela skied a pitch to right and the ball was dropped in the outfield, allowing Pirela to sail into second base. Catcher Josh Hines followed drawing a walk, before being replaced by speedup runner Jackson Thomas, and the Tigers quickly turned up the pressure as both runners took off for the next base.

It appeared that TC catcher Ethan Frame had Pirela hosed at third base, but the ball wasn’t cleanly caught and both runners moved into scoring position. Two miscues that seemed to shake Lazaro, who saw Jesuit take the decisive lead on an RBI groundout by senior Grant Jordan.

“I knew I had a job to do there with runners on second and third,” Jordan said. “I knew anything hit hard would get it done. That was my only approach.”

Jesuit senior third baseman Grant Jordan, shown here throwing for an out, drove in the deciding run with a ground ball to shortstop. 

Jesuit added another three pitches later as Thomas crossed on a wild pitch, followed by three straight walks and a second error in the inning allowing a third run across.

“Listen, an ugly win is better than a pretty loss,” Menendez said, “especially against Tampa Catholic. We’ll take those any way we can.”

On the other side, Tampa Catholic head coach Paul Russo Jr. said it was the kind of inning he was afraid of in a game against Jesuit.

“I’ve been preaching to our guys that our pitching is good enough that if you don’t give up a crooked number, we are going to be in every game,” Russo said. “They get four hits, leave 11 on base … things got a little out of hand and we didn’t control our emotions well enough.”

Though the offensive output was limited to just four hits, Jesuit’s defense had some bright moments including a tremendous play at short from Jacob Lozano, who gloved a bounding chopper and ended an inning with a laser to first; and a nice running catch in center by Pirela.

Jesuit junior shortstop Jacob Lozano makes a put out at second base.

Junior righty Roman Corinti held the Tigers off the board in his 2 1/3 innings of relief for TC. 

TC junior Roman Corinti stemmed any further damage with a strikeout to close the third, and provided some nice work on the mound going 2 1/3 innings, allowing just one hit and working around three walks to hold the deficit at three.

Jesuit would add one final run in the sixth as Hines singled to start the inning, and again gave way to Thomas, who eventually scored on a balk.

Jesuit runner Jackson Thomas beats a throw to third base after a wild pitch. Running as the speedup for catcher Josh Hines, Thomas scored twice and stole a bag.

Senior Derek Westfall provided two scoreless innings of relief for the Tigers, striking out two and ending the game fielding a comebacker to record his first save.

Senior Derek Westfall worked two scoreless innings of relief to pick up his first save of the year.

Though Menendez labeled it an “ugly win,” what hasn’t been ugly is Jesuit’s start to the season, which has featured a 43-6 scoring differential, and big wins over Georgia powerhouse Parkview, perennial state contender Venice, and a seven-run win over Mitchell this week.

Even in a game where Jesuit left 11 runners on base, and scratched out three unearned runs without a hit in the third inning, there seemed no point of frustration or panic.

“What Jesuit does to a T is they never panic,” Russo said. “In these types of games, you can’t panic. You just can’t panic.”

Jesuit travels to face Lakeland Christian next Tuesday, before opening up Saladino Tournament play at home against Plant City.

Tampa Catholic has dropped two games on the year – both to teams ranked in the Top 5 in the state – so don’t expect Friday’s loss to be too much of a setback. The Crusaders will host IMG White on Tuesday, before opening Saladino play against Alonso at Lennard next Saturday.

#2 Jesuit 4, Tampa Catholic 0

T 000|000|0 – |0|3|3
J 000|000|0 – |4|4|1
W – Abraham (2-0); L – Lazaro (0-2); S – Westfall (1)
Records – T (3-2); J (6-0).

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