Baseball: Mt. Carmel ends Nazareth’s 4A title hopes

BURBANK – Cooper Malamazian and John Hughes were only part of the Nazareth baseball team’s phenomenal senior class.

Six four-year starters and Division I recruits – Malamazian (Indiana), Hughes (North Carolina), David Cox (Illinois-Chicago), Nick Drtina (Louisville), Luca Fiore (Illinois-Chicago) and Cole Reifsteck (Belmont) – were integral to the Roadrunners’ 2022-23 back-to-back Class 3A state championships, their first two titles, four regional titles and a combined 132 victories.

“We’ve had probably the craziest four years any class has had in the state,” Malamazian said.

Only three more victories together would have been the perfect ending to a perfect sendoff.

The end came too soon Friday with the Roadrunners only loss of the season, 5-3 to Mt. Carmel in the Class 4A Reavis Sectional final.

“That’s what it is. It’s baseball and that’s why baseball’s great because anything can happen on any given day,” said Hughes, who pitched the first three innings, followed by Andrew Kouris and Malamazian (2 innings each).

“We were on the wrong end of it today but we’ve been on the right end of it a lot of times. Luck runs out sometimes.”

The move from 3A to 4A this season was not the reason for the No. 1-seeded Roadrunners (37-1) not advancing to Monday’s Crestwood Super-Sectional against Providence Catholic.

This was more just a solid game by the No. 7-seeded Caravan (22-14), who have only six seniors on their roster and got a clutch pithing outing by sophomore starter Jake Matise (9 strikeouts in 6 innings). The Roadrunners had 14 seniors on their roster.

“Being 4A (this season) is a non-factor. It’s still baseball,” Nazareth coach Lee Milano said.

“It was a good game. They flat out beat us. They got the big hits. We hit some balls at them and they beat us. That’s the game of baseball and if you play long enough, that’s going to happen. It’s a one-game playoff every playoff game.”

These are the most victories in a season by any Nazareth team. Friday’s loss ended a streak 46 straight victories and of 17 straight playoff victories.

“This class is going to go down as one of the greatest classes in the history of the state,” Milano said. “As good as they are baseball players, they are better kids.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime group.”

The Roadrunners took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first and tied it 3-3 in the third on Malamazian’s 358-foot home run over the left-field scoreboard. Mt. Carmel took the lead in the sixth on a wild pitch and scored again in the seventh with a single, sacrifice bunt and single.

Nazareth had six hits with just one hit after the third inning, a two-out single in the seventh by Malamazian.

“That’s a testament to them. They came up with the big hit, did what they had to do. They’re a good, young team,” Milano said. “You play enough games, it’s not going to go your way and today just wasn’t our day.”

Drtina (double), junior Jaden Fauske (double) and Malamazian each had two hits. Drtina’s two-out double at the front of the warning track to dead center scored Malamazian and Fauske in the first.

Just before Malamazian singled in the seventh, Fiore was robbed with a great diving catch by center fielder Kolin Adams.

With one out and Drtina on second in the sixth, first baseman Anthony Chavez dove to snag a grounder. Matise covered first and scooped a low throw for the out. A called third strikeout ended the inning.

Reliever Murray, one of the Caravan’s best pitchers last year, is coming off UCL surgery. Murray made his pitching season debut May 11.

“We’ve preached to the boys throughout the entire season that the opponent is the game. We never get caught up with who’s in the other dugout,” Mt. Carmel coach Brian Hurry said. “We play a great, tough schedule. What we need to do to be successful doesn’t change. We played very good baseball today.”