BY STUART LONDON
Sports Writer

A little over a week beforehand, Archbishop Ryan's baseball team was three outs away from not making the Catholic League playoffs.

It now finds itself 21 outs away from winning the championship.

In a massive reversal of fortune, the Raiders will play Father Judge for the Catholic League title on Wednesday at 4:30 PM at La Salle University.

Ryan (18-9) made it to the finals with a stunning 5-3 win over Southern Division champion Monsignor Bonner (21-3) on Saturday at La Salle University in the semifinals.

It is the Raiders first title game appearance since 1984, when it beat Archbishop Carroll. This will also be the first all-Northern Division final ever.

"(Bonner) is a great team but were hot now," said Ryan centerfielder Gene Pesczek, who played a key role in the win. "The guys are playing there hearts out. We're playing great baseball now."

In a game the previous week to decide the final playoff berth in the Northern Division, Ryan trailed 1-0 to Cardinal Dougherty before scoring two runs in the seventh inning.

It continued its hot streak with a 5-2 win over Archbishop Wood on Tuesday and a 10-4 victory over La Salle High on Wednesday before facing Bonner, which had a bye into the semiifnals as division champs.

If not for a great catch by Pesczek in the sixth inning, it might be Bonner who would be playing Judge on Wednesday.

The Pirates were up 3-2 with two outs and it looked like the tremendous afternoon heat was finally getting to Ryan sophomore pitcher John Price, who had been masterful until then.

With two runners on base, Bonner's Rob Cucinotta blasted a shot to deep center field.

In most high schools, Cucinotta's shot would have been an automatic home run but La Salle's Hank DeVincent Field has a very deep straight away center.

With all the space, Pesczek thought he had a shot at it. "I picked up (sight of it) and I just started running," Pesczek said. "I knew it was definitely over my head. I turned around, looked at the ball, and saw I had a chance.

"I jumped and laid out for it."

Backpedaling and then diving, Pesczek caught the ball to end the inning and save, at the very least, two runs.

"That was an unbelievable catch," Ryan coach Mike Lake said. "He had a great jump on the ball and had some great strides to it.

"He did the same thing against Dougherty. He made a great catch in the sixth and then he hit a double to lead off the seventh."

Despite the excitement, the Raiders still had work to do as they trailed by a run entering the final inning.

Pesczek, once again, led off the seventh with a double. He scored on a catcher's interference call with pinchitter Mike Kuhner at the plate with the bases loaded as, following the double, Neil Regan had hit a sacrifice bunt, Price walked and Butch Cantz was intentionally walked.

Walks to Tom DeCree and Kevin Corcoran brought in two more runs.

Pitcher Ralph Kane came in relief of Price in the seventh inning to earn a save.

Bonner was noted going in for its great pitching depth but after starting pitcher Dan Mulholland had to leave the game after five innings with Bonner up 2-0 when he hurt his leg running out an infield hit in a collision with first baseman DeCree, his replacements, Scott Fremont and Dennis Moran had major control problems.

"It's almost impossible for someone to come in cold in a situation like that and throw strikes," Lake said. "I told my batters, take a strike, maybe two, and see if we can get them rattled."

The ironic part of all of this is that two of the previous three years, Ryan had been the regular season champ of the North and lost its first playoff game.

Apparently, Cinderella's slipper fits the Raiders much better.

"It's a shock but I knew we had the potential the whole time," said Pesczek. "Guys just had to step up and hit the ball at the right time.

"I think we came in with too much confidence the other times. It's better to play a few games. You could tell they hadn't played in a while."

Or seen a catch like Pesczek's in a long while.

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