It was a popular belief that if St. Joseph by the Se was going to win its first CHSAA Class A intersectional baseball title, Nick Pavia would be the one to pitch them there. The right-handed ace has forged a reputation as a big game pitcher in his three years on varsity and the Wagner-bound senior was considered one of the top pitchers in the CHSAA.
Pavia pitched brilliantly, but lost in a nine-inning pitchers’ duel with Xavier’s Rob Maguire Friday night. If the Vikings were to win the title Saturday, Frank Stavola would have to have a solid outing.
He did one better, allowing one unearned run on four hits. He struck out four and walked four in a complete-game, 3-1 victory.
“He went out there and he was phenomenal, better than everyone expected,” Sea catcher Joe Stabach said. “It was the best game he ever pitched, unbelievable.”
Sea coach Gordon Rugg, though, wasn’t surprised.
“He’s been doing it all year for us,” he said.
Stabach and Stavola had a heart-to-heart on the way to St. John’s Saturday morning. They talked about a devastating walk-off loss to Xaverian in the 2008 junior varsity final at Kaiser Stadium and Stabach gave Stavola the game plan against Xavier.
“I wanted him to get ahead of everyone,” Stabach said. “I wanted him to throw strike one. You can’t have walks, especially with Xavier, they’re very [fundamentally sound], they’ll bunt a runner over. But he got ahead strike one and he was just great.”
By hitting his spots with his fastball and curveball, Stavola constantly got ahead of Xavier batters. The few times he made mistakes, Stavola got himself out of jams. With runners at second and third and two outs in the third, he induced Stephen Vorvolakos to ground out to end a potential rally. In the fourth, with two men on, he got Michael Sansevere to fly out to center.
And with Dan D’Angelo at second after Xavier scored its lone run in the sixth, Stavola killed a potential rally by striking out Brendan Cosgrove.
“His change-up was working and he was also able to get us to chase a couple of pitches with his fastball out of the zone,” Xavier’s James McCool said. “He was working nicely up in the zone.”
With a 3-1 lead heading into the seventh, Stavola didn’t want to make things any more interesting than they had to be.
“I just wanted to get those three outs and get out of there,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave any runners on base, nothing.”
Stavola did just that, celebrating a CHSAA title with Stabach that eluded them on the JV level two years ago. And when it was over, after the pile-on by the mound and the trophy presentation, Pavia sought out Stavola through the maze of blue uniforms.
“Nick pitched a great game yesterday, nine innings and you can’t get a win,” Stavola said. “After the game today he said way to pick me up.”
As it turned out, Stavola picked up the entire team, helping lead the Vikings to their first ever CHSAA Class A intersectional title.
“It’s the best feeling ever,” Stavola said.