Drury Baseball's Run Ends in State Final Four

WORCESTER, Mass. – Luis Meija was nearly unhittable Tuesday in pitching the Boston English baseball team to a 3-0 win over Drury in the Division 5 State Semi-Finals at Holy Cross.

 

Meija struck out nine, walked three and allowed two hits in a complete-game effort on the mound for first-seeded Eagles (19-7), who advanced to Saturday’s state title game against No. 2 Georgetown, a 6-1 winner over Maynard on the other half of the bracket on Tuesday.

 

It was the second year in a row that English advanced to the title game against the Blue Devils, but Tuesday’s was a much different game than the 9-7 barnburner the teams played a year ago.

 

No one scored on Tuesday until the bottom of the fourth, and it was still a one-run game until the Eagles scored a couple of insurance runs one inning later.

 

That was more than enough against Meija, who, like Drury starter JJ Prenguber (5 and one third innings pitched, eight strikeouts, three walks) benefited from a pitcher’s strike zone.

 

“We kept talking about it all day long,” Drury coach Rob Jutras said. “We just knew we … we didn’t want to get beat out, and we didn’t want to get beat out and up. And we were just fighting to kind of spray that one out of play, stay with it and see what we could do with two strikes.

 

“We were just trying to be tough and trying to grind out at-bats to give ourselves a chance – to keep trying to put some pressure on.”

 

The Blue Devils put pressure on Mejia early, but he pitched out of jams to keep it a scoreless game.

 

In the first, Julian Feliciano led off the game with a walk and went all the way to third on a passed ball. Connor Hinkell then worked a walk to put runners at the corners, but he was picked off by Mejia, who proceeded to get the next hitter swinging and the third out on a ground ball to short to strand Feliciano at third.

 

In the top of the second, Jake McAllister led off with a double to center field and stole second base, but Mejia struck out the next three hitters to leave him 90 feet from home.

 

Meanwhile, Prenguber pitched out of his own second-and-third, one-out jam in the first with a pair of strikeouts and retired the side in order in the second and third innings.

 

“We couldn’t have asked for more [from Prenguber],” Jutras said. “He executed the game plan perfectly, pumped everything for strikes, worked quick, limited damage, was great with runners on. He gave us a great chance. Unbelievable job.”

 

English finally broke through in the fourth.

 

Braily Soto got things started with a one-out walk and moved up on a groundout to the right side. Then Angeliel Sierra delivered a single up the middle to bring Soto home with two out to make it 1-0.

 

The Blue Devils briefly thought they had the game tied in the top of the fifth.

 

Brayden Canales reached on a one-out walk and took second and third on a pair of balk calls against Meija. Canales then was awarded home on a third balk, but, after an umpire conference, they sent him back to third, and Meija finished the inning with a swinging strike and a fly ball down the line deep to right that Braunny Arias was able to chase down for the Eagles.

 

In the bottom of the fifth, Meija helped his cause with a leadoff triple, and Soto doubled in a two-run rally that gave Meija some breathing room in the sixth and seventh, when Drury managed just a Hinkell infield single in a pair of 1-2-3 innings.

 

Prenguber left the mound with one out in the sixth inning, and Lucas Hamilton finished up.

 

Drury committed just one error behind the two hurlers and got a strong game behind the plate from Julian Feliciano, who threw out two runners trying to steal second base.

 

“He’s just such a leader,” Jutras said of Feliciano. “He just has that constant poise about him, the patience about him. He just leads his guys on the mound. He’s the same guy all the time. … They could have talked year along about how choppy it got and how crazy it got [with injuries], but they just kept trying to dock the boat. They never complained about things not going their way, and they kept on trying to find answers.

 

“And they did that right until the final moment.”

 

Feliciano, a junior, will be one of the returnees next year when Drury tries to continue a run that has included a Western Mass title and two state Final Fours. But a lot of key contributors from that run are moving on, including a couple who are going to continue their athletic careers in college.

 

“They’ve absolutely changed the program,” Jutras said of his seniors. “And they’ve impacted an entire community. They’ve inspired an entire community. And they made me a better coach.

 

“Their impact is going to be felt for years and years to come. And these younger guys have role models they’ve spent two or three years with. They don’t have to look any further because they can just look to the guy next to them.”