WAY BETTER: Hun School baseball player Carson Wehner makes a play at third base in 2021 action. Last Saturday, senior star Wehner produced a stellar mound effort, yielding three hits and striking out nine in a 4-1 win over Poly Prep Country Day School (N.Y.). The Raiders, who improved to 4-0 with the victory, host St. Augustine on April 7 before playing at the Blair Academy on April 9 and the Pennington School on April 11. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Carson Wehner was determined to close the deal as he took the mound for the Hun School baseball team to pitch the seventh inning against Poly Prep Country Day School (N.Y.) last Saturday.

Having surrendered just three hits over the first six innings as Hun built a 4-1 lead, senior righty Wehner proceeded to retire the Blue Devils 1-2-3 to put the finishing touches on a superb mound effort.

“That is how I pitch; I like to get stronger as the game goes on, I have always been that way,” said Wehner, who had nine strikeouts in his complete game performance. “All of my pitchers were on, I felt it before the game in the bullpen. They were all working for me well today.”

Facing the New York powerhouse, Wehner brought a battling mentality to the mound.

“I just wanted to attack the guys, I wasn’t quite familiar with them because they are from New York,” said Wehner. “It was just throw strikes. I knew my fielders were going to do the job, I love the guys behind me.”

Wehner helped himself with an RBI groundout in the second inning to make it a 1-1 game and a bunt single in the sixth that loaded the bases and help set the table for a three-run rally by the Raiders.

“I saw coach (Tom Monfiletto) call it, I had a few bunts for hit last year,” said Wehner. “He called it and I was like, ‘all right, why not.’ The pitch was a little up, I honestly don’t know how I got a good bunt down. It was huge to get the bases loaded for us and the offense took off from there.”
Pulling out the win was uplifting for the Raiders. “It was a huge confidence builder, we were all up in the dugout and we said we need to score and we did and came out on top,” said Wehner. “I think we are going to do great things this year.”

Hun head coach Tom Monfiletto, for his part, was not surprised that Wehner did great things on the mound against Poly Prep.

“Carson is one of the toughest kids I have ever coached, he really is,” said Monfiletto, noting that Wehner, a star third baseman, did most of his mound work last season in relief. “His pure tenacity is incredible to watch, it is so fun to watch him pitch. We have been very excited for this, for him to get this chance against a really, really good team.”

Hun needed tenacity to overcome a Blue Devils squad stocked with Division I recruits.

“I told the guys that Wrestlemania is tonight but it very well could be here at 2:00 because this is a heavyweight battle,” said Monfiletto. “It was great. We match up very well, we are very similar teams. We had a nice little chess match going on there and some really good defense on both sides which was awesome. I think we had two strike ’em out, throw ’em out double plays and one regular throw ‘em out at second and they had a couple too.”

With the game knotted at 1-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Hun took advantage of two Poly Prep errors to scratch out three runs, highlighted by Mike Chiaravallo dashing home on a botched throw to make it 3-1.

“I think they knew at that point, in order to get something going offensively we just needed to put the ball into play, no matter what,” said Monfiletto, who also got an RBI single from Tyler Tucker in the rally.

“The play of the game for me, aside from everything that Carson did on the mound, was Mike Chiaravallo on the throw to first base on the double play attempt. He just kept going, there was no hesitation whatsoever. Before I could even say anything to him, he was gone. If he hesitates just for a second he might get thrown out but  he doesn’t. That is how I want everybody to play.”

Monfiletto is excited by how the Raiders are playing on a daily basis.

“We haven’t seen any letup in practice, this is something that they really, really want,” said Monfiletto. “This season is just incredibly important to everyone on this team and you can see it in their commitment level. Everybody is all in. We have literally not seen a second of let-up on practice which has been awesome.”

With Hun hosting St. Augustine on April 7 before playing at the Blair Academy on April 9 and the Pennington School on April 11, Monfiletto is confident that his squad will keep showing that commitment.

“We are going to see quality arms,” said Monfiletto. “We were able to win a war of attrition and grind this one out. I would like to see less strikeouts. I would like to see us barrel up some more balls against really good pitching. They had two miscues and we were able to take advantage of it.”

Wehner, for his part, believes that the Raiders will take advantage of the opportunities that will come their way this spring.

“These are my closest friends, we just go out there every day for each other,” said Wehner.

“They all had my back today. We all have our each other’s backs every day. We just have to keep the momentum from the four wins in a row. We have to keep winning and keep battling every day. We got a huge week coming up so looking to build off it, that is the goal.”