Raiders roll in baseball final
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
The previous Hun School baseball teams to win the Prep A state championship had some big-name players.
The Raiders team that captured the state title with an 11-2 win over Peddie on Sunday doesn’t have as many household names, but they proved to be just as successful in the end. Hun’s state championship was its fourth in the last 10 years.
”I think this is extremely rewarding,” said longtime Hun coach Bill McQuade. “Some of the years with the (Mike) Russos and (Steve) Garrisons, there was pressure to perform well because everyone knew how good we were. Here, the pressure was to get the kids to reach farther than they thought they could reach.
”We got great leadership from (Dave) Dudek, (Mark) Rende and (Chris) Leach. To end up as state champions and second in the MAPL, it’s really impressive. I hope it carries over to next year. We have some big shoes to fill, but hopefully it carries over and they get better in the offseason.”
The Raiders were the second seed for the state tournament, and got to play a pair of home games when rain forced the tournament to go from being double- to single-elimination. Hun knocked off Lawrenceville, 2-1, Saturday behind Austin Goeke’s gem. The sophomore did not allow a hit for the first 3Ò innings, and surrendered only an unearned run in the sixth inning while improving to 5-1. Dudeck homered to get Hun on the board. Leach’s bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning pushed home Andrew Levine, who had led off the inning with a long double, with the winning run.
”That was a huge boost,” McQuade said of the semifinal win. “Austin Goeke, he was our main pitcher all year. He was the most consistent. He ended up 5-1 and had an ERA close to 1.00. He was in complete command for five innings. When we scored the run in the bottom of the seventh, that was everything and finding out Peddie upset Blair and we’d get a home game, that was like an extra bonus. That made it easier for Alex Fabian to stay relaxed. And when we scored some runs, that took pressure off that way.”
Fabian kept Peddie off balance through 5Ð innings in which he allowed four hits and two runs, and got all the run support he would need when the Raiders pieced together all six of their hits for the game in the third and fourth innings while scoring 10 runs. Gavin Stupienski closed out the game with a scoreless 1Ò innings.
”We hit in spurts throughout the year,” McQuade said. “We only got six or seven hits, but they came at the right time. We’ve had teams in the past where one through nine, it was good. It was spotty this year.”
The Raiders got plenty of hits in their two-inning outburst. Dudeck delivered a two-run double, and Steve Wells sent a three-run home run into the trees bordering the brook behind the right-field fence.
”Davey Dudeck got hot and he ended up with seven home runs, all of them came in second half of the season,” McQuade said. “Steve Wells, it goes back to Mike Ford to see some shots like that. He hit it halfway up the trees. We got great offense from two or three other kids.”
Like the Raiders’ season, it all came together at the right time. Hun pulled off the state title win with a relatively young team.
”It was a bit of a surprise, but at the beginning of the season that’s what we talked about,” McQuade said. “I didn’t think we’d be at the same place at the beginning and end. Our pitching came around and the fielding and hitting. You add in a little luck and you come out on top.
”I actually felt pretty good. We’ve done well on our field and our pitching has been so young, but we can go two or three deep with Goeke, Fabian and (Mike) Manfredi. The biggest decider all year is how we play defense. The last four or five games, we played incredible defense. You combine that with good pitching, and we can play with anyone on the schedule.”
The Raiders have just three senior starters — Leach, a four-year starter at catcher, shortstop Mark Rende and Levine, an outfielder. The Wheaton-bound Leach is the only one that started on the last Raiders title team.
”We lose three quality, quality players,” McQuade said. “They’ve been with us from two to four years. Those are three that clearly have to be replaced.
”Leach, he knows this feeling. You talk about a young man that has come a long way in terms of his game and as a person and student. He’s going to be a star at Wheaton. Leach behind the plate is unbelievable. Four games in a row, he’s picked a guy off second from his knees. He’s a unanimous All-MAPL choice and that’s with everyone only seeing him once.”
With a young pitching staff, Leach was important for the Raiders all season.
”We thought we lost him six or seven games ago when he was injured in practice,” McQuade said. “He hurt the back of his hand, but he’s a tough, tough kid. To have that experience behind the plate and block anything the kids threw up there and throw out runners, that gave the young pitchers a huge boost.”
Levine will play club baseball at Miami while Rende, whom many coaches believe could play at the next level, will attend Boston College. Together, they helped to guide the Raiders to another state title to bookend state championships three years apart.
”We told our kids not to worry about where we are in April, but to worry about where we’ll be in mid-May,” McQuade said. “The kids worked hard and the hard work paid off.”