Huskies drop Saints, 5-3

Junior Max Abramovich picked up his fifth victory of the season as the Blue Valley Northwest varsity baseball team defeated the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints, 5-3 Friday May 5.

Gabe Swartz, Sports Editor

For the fifth time this season, Huskies pitcher Max Abramovich took the mound and left with the victory on this Friday night at the DAC. Abramovich, as has been the case multiple times this season worked his way into an early jam before escaping with limited damage.

In the top of the first inning the Saints loaded the bases with no one out, before Abramovich retired three of the next four STA batters, allowing just one runner to score on a hit by pitch. Facing typical first inning trouble, Abramovich said he might need to make a few alterations to his pregame routine.

“I feel like it always takes me some time to settle in,” the Huskies junior pitcher said. “I should probably warm up some more, but, I get out of it, so in the end I don’t mind throwing that many pitches. But, it would be nice if I could figure that out.”

Head coach Corby Lange said Abramovich’s maturity on the mound is on full display in his ability to escape the early trouble.

“It shows that he’s a mature pitcher, that he’s got a lot of guts, and that he can dig deep when he needs to,” Lange said. “When he came off the field [after the first inning] I told him ‘that’s like hitting a triple that scores three runs,’ because they should’ve gotten a lot more than one run there by the way it looked, and he did a good job [to escape].”

The Huskies responded in their half of the first inning as senior centerfielder Riley Zerni doubled down the left field line to leadoff and came around to score on a wild pitch later in the inning.

A swollen knee from a successful stolen base attempt took Zerni from the game after just two innings, but he did not fail to contribute. Zerni got the offense going again in the second, as he delivered a 3-run triple to the right-center field gap, extending the Huskies lead to 4-1. Senior Mitchell Bloss’ single later in the second would score Zerni, who accounted for all five Husky runs before departing the game.

“I’ve just been staying in my routine, thinking about what I need to do when I’m hitting and keeping my hands going towards the pitcher and keeping inside the ball,” Zerni, who finished 2-for-2 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored said.

Zerni said he did not think the injury would force him from any further action.

The remainder of the night was spent with Saints batters trying to solve the problems Abramovich gave them, and they had plenty of trouble with that. Abramovich left with 5 ⅔ innings pitched, 3 walks, 3 hits and 3 runs.

Abramovich deflected any suggestions of being the Huskies staff ace, saying that he had no explanation for why the team has so much success with him on the mound.

“I wouldn’t [call myself] ‘staff ace’,” Abramovich said. “I would say [the pitchers] are all equal in all ways and I mean I don’t even know what to say. It’s always good to win, and it’s always good to win at home.”

With three straight wins against St. Thomas Aquinas, Lange said the Huskies feel like they can compete with anyone.

“We play the toughest schedule that we can build,” Lange said. “Our kids are playing their best baseball right now and we believe in them no matter who we play. That’s our third straight win against Aquinas, they haven’t beaten us since 2015, so we feel pretty good about whoever we play.”

With the win, BVNW moves to 9-6 for the season. The Huskies take on Shawnee Mission South tomorrow at 12 p.m. at 3 & 2 West Stadium.