St. John’s Baseball Looks to Continue CMass Dominance

Friday, April 13, 2012

Joe Parello, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

Senior Mike Badjo is expected to lead a deep and talented Pioneer pitching staff.

The Pioneers of St. John’s are coming off their third district title since 2005, and appear to have the pieces in place to continue dominating Central Mass.

Last season, the Pioneers finished 20-8, and rode an eight-game winning streak to a Central Mass crown and the state semi-finals. St. John’s was upended one step short of the championship game by Minnechaug Regional, who defeated the Pioneers 6-5.

This year, St. John’s knows there will be some added pressure to repeat as district champs, but coach Charlie Eppinger says his team enjoys that position.

“There is definitely some pressure that comes with it,” Eppinger said. “But we have some advantages. We have a lot of tough kids from good families that thrive on that, and work hard every day to achieve our goals.”

A Deep Rotation

St. John’s will go as far as its pitching can carry it this year, and that’s just fine with Eppinger. The Pioneers have, arguably, Central Mass’ best pitching staff, with both quality and quantity.

“Pitching is definitely going to be a strength this year,” Eppinger said. “We’ve got great depth in our staff, and we’re pretty good defensively, so we’re going to be able to win games that way.”

The ace of the Pioneers staff would appear to be senior Mike Badjo, who posted a 6-1 record as a starter last year. Badjo is a powerful right-hander who will play at UMass next season, and his two wins in last year’s playoffs show he can handle big games.

Senior Anthony Perry is expected to be the top lefty in the Pioneer staff, and is hoping to revert back to his 2010 form. As a sophomore that year, Perry went 8-1, but struggled a bit last year as a junior. The Pioneers will look for a big senior season from Perry before he goes off to play his college ball at Assumption.

Eppinger says that he is confident in five or six pitchers after his top two, and that he will mix many of them into starting and relief roles throughout the year. He did say, though, that junior Ben White is in line to be the team’s third starter after playing well as a spot starter and relief pitcher last year.

Producing Offense

While the pitching staff may be loaded, the Pioneers do have some question marks when it comes to producing runs. St. John’s has lost a combined 21 players the past two years, and with them have gone significant power on offense.

“The last couple of years, we could score, 10, 12 or 14 runs in a game,” Eppinger said. “But we’re going to be a lot younger this year, and guys just aren’t as strong when they’re that age. We’ve got two sophomores starting, but we have a lot of talented young guys.”

Offensive Leaders

The Pioneers will not exactly be starved for offense, however, as they do return several talented upperclassmen at the plate. Senior Nick Seiber is playing first base this season, and brings his .425 batting average back for one more year before heading to the Stevens Institute of Technology.

Sieber is over at first because of the defensive prowess of junior Tom Petry. The speedy shortstop finished 2011 strong with the game-winning hit in the district title game, and Eppinger loves his ability to steal once he gets on base. Senior captain Jimmy Smith also returns in centerfield, and only had two errors in over 200 innings of defensive work. He also stole successfully on 13 of 14 attempts.