Nova Wins District 16-5A Championship 3-1 over St. Thomas

It was another battle to the very end between two familiar rivals in Nova and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Nova senior right-handed pitcher Ronny Patella had another brilliant outing on the mound, tossing a complete-game, two-hitter, and the Titans held off the Raiders 3-1 to win the District 16-5A Tournament championship at Nova High School.

Nova won their ninth straight game and will now host a regional quarterfinal game against Wellington on Tuesday. 

“It’s traditionally a great matchup between the two teams,” Nova coach  Pat McQuaid said. “We were able to score all our runs in one inning and find a way to win.  The victory means that we get a chance to play here at home on Tuesday and it should be fun.”

Patella and Raiders left-hander Jimmy Wright were locked in a pitcher’s duel with both teams combining for just one hit entering the fifth inning.

But, the Titans found a way to score all three of their runs in the fifth with two outs to break the scoreless tie.

Patella, who finished 3-for-3, drilled a pitch to the center field wall for a stand-up double to open the fifth inning. Wright responded with a strikeout of Jason Wilpon and then retired Matt Zanis on a pop-out to first. Pinch-runner Michael Meadows then stole third after a great jump with C.J. Chatham at the plate. After Chatham worked a walk, Wright, who was effective with his command for most of the game, bounced a pitch toward home and it skipped past catcher John McNamara to allow Meadows to score giving Nova the lead. 

Center fielder Zach Kleiman then hit a line-drive into left-center, and it went past the reach of Edmond Mussa and Andrew Hernandez towards the fence for an RBI triple to give the Titans a 2-0 lead.  Second baseman Corey Graf followed by hammering a pitch that stayed fair down the left field line for an RBI double to score Kleiman to cap the inning.

Patella cruised through the first five innings, retiring the side in order three times. He held the Raiders without a hit while only allowing two runners to reach after a  hit-by-pitch in the second inning and a two-out walk to Ryan Reyes in the third inning.

He had retired seven consecutive batters entering the sixth, before John McNamara broke up the no-hitter with a lead-off infield single. Patella was able to induce a weak dribbler toward third base, but Zanis’ throw was late to first. After issuing a walk to Reyes,  Mussa’s sacrifice bunt set up runners at second and third with one out. First baseman Jake Rudock grounded out to third for the second out of the inning. Right fielder Matt Franco then delivered a line-drive single into center field to score McNamara and Reyes. But, after a conference on the mound, the Titans appealed to third base to see if Reyes failed to touch the bag as he rounded the base to come home and score and the umpire called Reyes out, effectively putting an end to the rally.

“We need to create more opportunities than just that one inning to beat that team,” St. Thomas Aquinas coach Robert Lawson said. “[Ronny Patella] kept us off-balanced and pitched well. We will regroup and hopefully get a chance to see them again.”

St. Thomas Aquinas had the tying run at the plate in the seventh after a two-out walk. Patella finished the Raiders off by inducing a ground ball to shortstop for the final out.

“It’s a big win for us because we can play at home,”  Patella said. “I got a little tired in the sixth, but I was able to get the job done.”

Nova will host Wellington on Tuesday while the Raiders will go on the road to face West Boca in the opening round of the regional playoffs.

“Nova is a good fundamentally-sound team, well-coached, and their kids play hard,” Lawson said. “It was a well-played game and we got beat by a very good team.”

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