Two John Jay baseball teams, but just one winner

Luke Fisch chases down a grounder at second base for the Wolves. JIM MACLEAN PHOTO

By JIM MACLEAN 

It was a big win over a big school for the John Jay varsity baseball team as the Wolves continue to come up with big wins on the diamond.

This time it was a victory in the battle of the John Jay’s, as the John Jay of Cross River Wolves scored an 8-4 victory over the John Jay of East Fishkill Patriots on April 17. The Patriots are a large school competing in Section 1 Class AAA, but the Class A Wolves proved to be up for the challenge and pulled out the win.

After starting the season 0-2, John Jay has come on strong to improve to 8-4 overall with the win over the Patriots. It didn’t start well as ace Jacob Storch tweaked his hamstring and had to come out after one inning pitched. Jackson Moreo came on to do the job both on the mound and at the plate with Henrik Zhai finishing it off for the win.

Tough competition

“This was a very big win for us against a very good Triple-A school, they can really swing the bats and our pitchers had to compete and they did,” said John Jay coach Ted Lawrence. “Jacob felt good enough to go, but after the first he felt something and we need him, so we went to Jackson. What a great job Jackson and Henrik did, both of them.”

Ben Kalish gave the Wolves the early lead in the first inning as Moreo reached on a single and Kalish drove him in with a sacrifice fly.

Moreo then came up with the big blow as he drilled a double off the wall to clear the bases and give the Wolves a 4-0 lead. Ty Beshara then had an RBI hit to score Moreo and make it 5-0.

In the fifth inning, Moreo worked his way out of a jam with runners on second and third as he came up with two strikeouts to end the inning. The Wolves then added to the lead in the bottom of the fifth as Eli Tubbs and Nate Summer each came up with a hit and Moreo had an RBI single to make it 8-3. Summer and Tubbs each delivered a pair of hits in the victory, while Moreo had three hits and four RBI.

The Patriots cut the lead down to 8-4 with a home run in the top of the sixth, but Zhai came on in relief and closed the door to wrap up the win.

John Jay had suffered a tough 2-1 defeat in the previous game against rival Horace Greeley as Jack Garneau hurled a gem but it wasn’t enough for the Wolves to pull out the win. Prior to that game, John Jay scored an 8-1 victory over Lakeland as Aidan Chernick, Amogha Bhat and Kalish each had two hits at the plate, while Moreo got the win on the mound and Mason Federice came on in relief to close out the victory.

Wild one

It was a wild one in the win before that as John Jay started the week with a 14-8 victory over Carmel. Zhai got the win on the mound, while Luke Fisch and Bhat came up with clutch hits in a six-run rally to pull out the victory after falling behind.

“Against Carmel, we had a 5-0 lead, gave it up, but then had a six-run rally to pull out the win,” Lawrence said of his team. “I told them, our motto prior to this year was whatever it takes, and this year I said fellas you came up with your own, you have a ‘will to win’ based on what I have seen. This is a young team, but these kids just keep fighting and that’s good to see. Hopefully, we’ll come back from a break in Florida and finish strong.”