For Paul VI, One Week in April Changed Everything

When the Paul VI baseball team looks back on its historic season, the most significant date might not be May 13, when the Panthers won the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference championship in dramatic fashion, or May 16, when they defended their state independent school title with an 8-4 win over Benedictine at the Petersburg Sports Complex.

The key date was not even a game day. It was April 9, a Thursday, when Paul VI conducted a six-hour practice. That session, and a satisfying road doubleheader sweep that Saturday at St. Anne's Belfield, launched a season-closing string of 17 wins in 19 games after a 5-7 start.

"Once we were able to get outside and practice, got a couple of good wins and built a little confidence, this team realized it should be business as usual," said Paul VI Coach Billy Emerson, who had lost nine seniors off last year's squad.

It turned out to be business as unusual. Paul VI (22-9), a sixth seed in the conference tournament, became the first team to win the WCAC and state independent school titles in the same season.

In the state championship win over Richmond school Benedictine, sophomore Matt Kianka hit a three-run homer to key a five-run second inning, and senior Chad Morgan blasted a solo shot in the third. Later, with the lead whittled to two runs, senior Dan Savage delivered a two-run single.

Senior Torey Mancari pitched into the sixth, and junior Eric McGee got the save in what was the Panthers' seventh game in nine days, counting the WCAC final that stretched over two days.

"It was a very gratifying experience to be able to win both of those things, especially after our start this year, where I think a lot of people weren't too sure what was going to happen," Emerson said. "We just have a real gutsy group of kids who pretty much made up their minds that this is what they were going to do."

Cavaliers' Hidden Strength

It might not seem like much on the surface that W.T. Woodson (11-12), the sixth seed in the Liberty District baseball tournament, is facing No. 1 Westfield (19-1) in the first round of the Northern Region playoffs that begin tomorrow.

But Woodson is the only local team to have beaten West Springfield this season, at the Orlando National Baseball Classic. In addition, Woodson took two out of three games from Madison, including in the Liberty quarterfinals, and lost five games to Liberty front-runners McLean and Stone Bridge by a total of 10 runs.

"If you look at our record, we're not the type of team that evokes a lot of fear," Woodson Coach Chris Warren said. "But we feel pretty good about the team we've got."

Some days, Warren said, he feels better about it than others. Woodson has lost by 10 runs to Marshall and Langley and by 14 to Madison.

One reason for the inconsistency is that the Cavaliers' top four pitchers are sophomores, with right-handers Bryson Hough and John McGillicuddy perhaps the most reliable. Junior catcher Connor Reilly, a transfer from Tennessee who started at quarterback for Woodson, has been a stabilizing influence.