The University City (UC) Centurions concluded their season with a tough 3-1 loss to the St. Augustine Saints in the third round of the CIF Division III baseball playoffs at Cathedral Catholic on Saturday, May 27.
“There’s only so much that I can do as a coach,” UC coach Jeff Dufek said. “We can practice as hard as we want and I can put them in the right situations. However, they have to be responsible for making the plays and getting the job done. I’ve been telling them all year long that we’ll go as far as they’ll let us go.”
In making it all the way to the quarterfinals with their best record in school history (25-7), the Centurions did go pretty far.
“It’s been a long season,” Dufek said. “Our backs were up against a wall.”
Prior to the loss to St. Augustine, UC defeated the visiting El Capitan Vaqueros, 7-5, in the second round on Friday, May 26. The Centurions jumped out to an early 7-3 lead before El Capitan came back with two runs in the ninth inning.
“We capitalized on mistakes they [the Vaqueros] made,” Dufek said. “We swung the bats well and scored runs.”
Senior pitcher Tristen Esaias struck out seven in going the distance and improving his record to 6-2 on the mound for UC.
“It didn’t look like Tristen had his best stuff to me,” Dufek said. “He got ahead of the hitters, though, and was able to get them to beat the ball into the ground.”
The Centurions will lose Esaias, third baseman Shane Hockaday, catcher Mitch McNamara, and first baseman K.C. Martin to graduation. But pitcher-outfielder Eddie Kalankiewicz, infielder Michael Shaw, pitcher-shortstop Tyler Saldino, shortstop-pitcher Dexter Coleman, outfielder-second baseman Kevin Santos, catcher Ben Sarno, pitcher-first baseman Matt Frankfurth, pitcher-outfielder Arthur Levinson, pitcher-third baseman Nick Rizzo, and pitcher Mitch Beacom will all be returning for UC next year.