John Jay Gets Easy 10-0 Win Over Saunders

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On Friday April 5, after opening the lacrosse season with a 3-1 victory over Lakeland High School, John Jay faced the Saunders Blue Devils at Contest Field in Cross River and sent a rookie to the pitcher's mound. So in walking the first batter on four pitches and falling behind to the second Devil, Jack Garneau admitted he might not have been locked in enough at the outset of the early evening game. But he turned the house key, struck out the side and the rest was easy pickings for the hungry Wolves.

In the bottom of the first inning, John Jay scored eight runs and offered no mercy in the resounding, game shortened 10-0 victory.

Shortstop Jacob Storch got things started with a single to right center and scored without Will Civetta putting the bat on the ball. Three balls getting past the Blue Devil catcher, Storch crossed the plate and Civetta followed the same exact blueprint. He walked and scored on three more balls that reached the backstop.

Nolan Rhodes, who was the beneficiary at the plate, walked and would score the old fashioned way. The second baseman stole second base and came in on Nick Russo’s line drive single to center.

Now a 3-0 game, Nick Fassert singled to right and catcher Gavin Bisignano was done playing small ball. “I just go up there thinking, attack, attack, attack,” said the senior, and he went deep to left center to extend the lead to 5-0.

Still no outs for the home team, Nick Benson knocked his teammate in with an infield hit to the right side, and a walk to Eliot Arbogast would provide fodder for the last two runs of the inning. Jackson Moreno’s grounder to second moved the two Wolves over and two more wild pitches tallied the total number of runs to a grand figure of eight.

A nice, comfy cushion, a leadoff double for Alexis Filpo didn’t raise much concern on the John Jay side, and Garneau quickly made the point moot anyway. Leaving the bat on the shoulders of the next three Blue Devil batters, the sophomore had six straight strikeouts on the game.

Garneau then gave way to his determined offense, and the batters didn’t let up in the least. John Jay got two more runs on a walk by Bisignano and a pair of singles by Nick Russo and James Arbogast.

Up ten runs at this point, Arbogast dropped the bat and picked up his glove for the pitcher's mound. Two innings pitched, he struck out four batters, and continued the shutout into the fifth inning.

The final three outs belonged to Matt Denker. A hit batter the relief pitcher's only blip, the junior got two strikeouts, and when the ball got away from Steve Carozo, the backup catcher won the race back to the plate for the final out of the game.

Knowing his future appearances won’t be as easy as this one, Denker understands what has to be done when the time actually comes. “You have to go in there with the right mentality and believe that you can do it every time,” said the senior.

Bisignano has a similar take for the team. “We’re going to the section one finals,” the catcher concluded. “I an definitely feeling pretty confident now.”

John Jay went onto beat Byram Hills twice, and Yorktown and Pelham

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