St. Francis baseball can’t match Chaminade’s power
GLENDALE — Mission League power was measured in extra-long base hits Wednesday afternoon.
Despite hitting a home run, the St. Francis High baseball team allowed two round-trippers, two doubles and a triple to visiting Chaminade in a 10-4 defeat for the Golden Knights in league play at the Glendale Sports Complex.
While the defeat drops the Golden Knights’ record to 5-10 and 1-4 in league, St. Francis has no time to lick its wounds as it travels to West Hills to take on Chaminade (9-5, 4-1) in the series finale Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
“All that matters is Thursday, that’s our outlook,” said St. Francis assistant coach Riley Smith, who was designated by interim head coach Joe DePinto to speak to the media. “We have to find a way to play St. Francis baseball.
“We have a lot of respect for Chaminade. They do a great job and have a great coaching staff and players, but we can’t worry about the opponent. It’s all about playing our game and executing.”
All of St. Francis’ offense came in two innings: the fifth and the seventh.
Trailing, 10-2, the Golden Knights were down to their final out when junior Patrick Dionisio ripped a first-pitch two-run homer over the left-field wall that scored Nolan Shwery and accounted for St. Francis’ final two runs.
“I just saw a high inside pitch and I just had to take it,” said Dionisio, who connected on his first high school homer. “Coach told me to watch first pitch, but I couldn’t pass it up.”
It could be argued that St. Francis’ best rally came in the bottom of the fifth with the Golden Knights trailing, 7-0.
Three straight singles from Noah Keeney, Hayden Byrnes and Charlie Bednar produced a run and left two on with no outs.
A wild pitch and a plunking of Christian Muro added another run for the Golden Knights, who pulled within 7-2 and still had runners on first and second with no outs.
Chaminade hurler Aidan Dolan did settle down and induced three straight outs without surrendering a run as the Golden Knights trailed, 7-2, after five.
Had St. Francis had any visions of a comeback, they were likely crushed along with a couple of bombs from the Eagles in the top of the sixth.
With about a dozen collegiate and Major League Baseball scouts in attendance, Chaminade’s Blake Rutherford did not disappoint.
The UCLA-bound No. 3-ranked high school baseball prospect, according to Baseball America, finished one for three with a homer, RBI, two runs and a stolen base and connected on a solo blast in the sixth that traveled just shy of 400 feet.
Rutherford’s home run was followed by a high-arching home run from the Eagles’ following batter, Nick Kahle, as Chaminade finished with three runs in the inning to take a 10-2 advantage.
Chaminade opened the game with four runs in the first on a rally started by a double from Kahle.
The Eagles added three runs in the second highlighted by a triple from Tommy Costello in going up, 7-0.
“We’re just going to forget about today, it didn’t happen,” said Dionisio, who at that moment remembered he had homered a few minutes earlier. “Well, I guess the homer is in the past, too.”
