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2020 MA Spring Team Preview - Central Catholic

LAWRENCE, Ma. - Second-year Central Catholic head coach John Sexton is counting on this season’s team to pick up where last year’s squad left off.

“We won five of our last six games of the regular season to qualify for the playoffs at 11-11,” pointed out Sexton, whose Raiders lost to Lawrence in the first round of the postseason. “We had graduated 12 seniors from the state-final team the year before and were very, very young last year. It took awhile to get going. Winning five of the last six was about the best that team could do.”

Four senior pitchers return from last year’s Raiders, which rebuilt after the 2018 squad reached the state finals in the Super 8. Ryan Semenetz, a St. Ansylm commit; Brandon Colleran, a Catholic University commit; Dominic Pedi, the 189th-rated New England senior and a University of New England football commit; and Jack Anthony are expected to lead the staff this year.

“All pitched a good amount of innings last year and all averaged over a strikeout an inning,” Seston pointed out. “I feel we have very good pitching depth.”

Producing runs will be vital if Sexton’s crew is to keep up a tradition that has featured nine league championships over the last 12 years.

“I’d sleep a lot better if we had one or two more good bats,” admitted Sexton.

Junior catcher Matthew Maloney, a Dayton commit ranked 82nd in the New England 2021 class, hit .396 with 15 runs scored and 14 RBIs last year and headlines the returnees. Dante Pistone, the 99th-ranked senior, brings more experience back to the infield with sophomores Ryan Cloutier, an infielder and pitcher, and Kyle Espinoza, a DH, adding additional seasoning to this year’s squad.

“We have quite a few back,” noted Sexton, whose biggest losses from a year ago were Hector Roman, a center fielder who hit .305 and is now at Fisher College, and Jonathan Montonile, a pitcher who finished with a 5-2 record. “We just finished a 13-week program this winter where I’ve seen huge improvement throughout the program. We didn’t have a great offense last season and part of that was we needed to be more physical. I feel the program will help with that.”

Senior infielder Jack Buotte and sophomore right-hand pitcher Thomas Green, rated 47th in the 2022 class, are others being counted on this spring.

“We’re very strong at catcher, we think we’ll be improved defensively in the infield and overall we have very good team speed,” Sexton said. “The key for us is we need to generate more runs than last year. We also have to play tighter in the infield. We were horrific there last year. We actually gave up more unearned runs than earned runs … I’ve never seen that before.”

A strong schedule, in addition to being part of a league featuring Lowell and North Andover, adds to the challenges being faced by Central Catholic.

“I’d put our non-league schedule up with anybody,” Seston related. “Our schedule is very, very difficult. I don’t know how much better our record will be compared with last year, but we will be better.”