By Bill Alden

Charlie Batista tapped the left side of his chest as he was greeted by his Hun School baseball teammates by the dugout after striking out the side in the sixth inning to cap a stellar mound effort against the Hill School (Pa.) last Friday.

Showing heart, senior Batista dug deep in his final inning of work.

“I was thinking coming into that sixth inning, I was getting up there, the most I pitched before this game was like 78,” said Batista. “I got up to 91 pitches. I felt good all the way through. That was a nice way to end.”

Batista produced a nice effort overall, yielding just one hit with eight strikeouts and three walks as Hun prevailed 3-0.

“I feel like attacking the zone early definitely worked for me,” said Batista, reflecting on his mound effort. “Every single at-bat, I worked a first pitch fastball down the middle and I set up all of my other pitches. My curveball was working really well today, the slider was working really well, and my change-up was working really well. All of my pitches seemed to be working well. I feel good on the mound, it is like second nature to me now.”

Putting in good work on the mound all spring, Batista has recorded a microscopic 0.26 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 27 innings.

“I feel like what has helped me in the beginning of the season is just having fun,” said Batista, a Penn State commit. “It is my last year here, I love the sport. I just wanted to have the most fun here and it is working out for me. I don’t really look at the stats that much.”

In addition to his superb pitching, Batista has piled up some impressive batting stats, hitting .396 with team-highs in homers (four) and RBIs (24).

“My bat has been good, I come with same approach to hitting,” said Batista, who blasted a homer and had four RBIs last Monday as Hun defeated Pennington 13-0 to improve to 14-5. “I look for my pitch early in the at-bat and I try to adjust to what I see and keep my hands back. I am in a groove right now.”

Hun head coach Tom Monfiletto credited Batista with being in a groove on the mound.

“Charlie has had an amazing year,” said Monfiletto in assessing Batista’s pitching performance against Hill. “He has been incredible and very fun to coach this year.”

Monfiletto had fun seeing Batista finish with a flourish against Hill.

“I think he knew we were coming up to the pitch count and we said be efficient and he was efficient,” said Monfiletto. “That last inning was awesome. It was him knowing the importance of getting through the top of the order so that we could finish it off at the end. He just got the job done.”

Ryan Greenstein got the job done in relief as he closed out the win, getting two strikeouts and giving up no hits in the seventh inning.

“Greeny really embraces that role,” said Monfiletto. “He did that earlier in D.C. when we played Jackson-Reed. That was huge.”

In addition to his pitching, Batista has made a huge impact this spring for Hun with his bat.

“Charlie is becoming a much more complete hitter and really a pain in the neck for pitchers,” said Monfiletto. “Last year, he was a little bit vulnerable to off-speed stuff. This year, I think half of his hits are on off-speed pitches. It has been great having him there in the order producing the way that he has.”

In the win over Hill, heads-up base running helped Hun produce a pair of runs in the second inning as Antonio Destribats scored with some aggressive running and Nico Amecangelo came home as an attempted steal caused a rundown between first base and second.

“Antonio was running for Charlie at the time and we got a bunt down,” said Monfiletto. “Antonio saw that the third baseman was not covering third base so he went from first to third. The throw went by the third baseman not that far and we scored. It was him being aggressive with a no holds barred, all bets are off type of approach there. The early steal is something we work on a ton so that was good.”

The Hun bats got going in the fourth inning as the Raiders strung together three hits to plate another run.

“We had some really good at-bats later on, I think Will [Kraemer] had a battle and then finished with a hit,” said Monfiletto. “Sam [Wright] saw a bunch of pitches and then finished with a hit and we got the run on that. That was great. I wished we could have put some more across, that would have been nice. It would have made it more comfortable but it was a good win against a good team.”

Senior catcher and Bucknell commit Deacon Bowne has been having a very good season with the bat, hitting .381.

“Deacon has been on fire at the plate,” said Monfiletto. “He is batting third, that is a huge challenge. You are going to get their best stuff, no matter what. He has been rising to that challenge every single game. We have been fortunate to have him.”

With Hun starting play in the Mercer County Tournament this week where it is seeded second and will host seventh-seeded Notre Dame in a quarterfinal round game on May 10, Monfiletto believes his team is primed to rise to the occasion as it gets into postseason action.

“This has been a better week than last week, I think we do have a little bit of momentum,” said Monfiletto, whose team is also slated to host St. Peter’s Prep on May 11 in a regular season matchup.

“The key is pitching and not giving other teams opportunities to get extra bases and score runs. It sounds so simple, but when you get this late in the season everybody is sort of hitting well. Everybody has gotten a lot of swings under their belt, everybody has seen some good pitching. That is where the pitching really has to ramp up. The defense has to ramp up too. We got a big double play today, which was really nice, and the great throw from right field from [Mike] Olender.”

Batista, for his part, is determined to end his Hun career on a high note.

“The team is definitely in a good groove, I feel like what helps us the most is team chemistry,” said Batista. “We are a tight-knit group. We are going to need to have some underclassmen step up for the MCTs. We are confident, I feel like we can go triple crown (Prep A and Mid-Atlantic Prep League in addition to MCT) this year. We have two more weeks left and I want to make the best out of it.”