Arevalo’s Gem Gives Belen Jesuit 6A-16 Lead

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Usually a young high school pitcher has to wait their turn in line before they get a shot at the biggest games of the season. For Belen Jesuit sophomore Pablo Arevalo, throwing his team’s biggest games has become commonplace. Almost equally as commonplace is Arevalo’s ability to rise to the occasion.

On Tuesday night, in front of a packed house at Westland Gardens Park, Arevalo was brilliant, mixing pitches and painting corners against district rival Mater Academy. The Wolverines scored two runs in the first, and then watched as Arevalo shut the Lions offense down inning after inning in a 2-1 Wolverines win.

“Their pitcher just threw a great game against us tonight,” said Lions Manager Mike DiRosa. “We hit some balls hard that just didn’t show up in the scorebook. They have a great defense and their pitcher pitched his butt off. You don’t like to lose any game, but when you lose to a team that plays as fundamentally sound as they did tonight, you have to tip your cap.”

Belen scored all the runs they needed in the first inning. Alex Cabrera was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Christian DelCastillo followed with a base hit, and when the ball got under the legs of a Mater outfielder and rolled to the fence, DelCastillo came all the way around to score.

“I knew when I rounded first and took a glance and saw it get through, that I had a shot to go all the way,” said DelCastillo.

From there, it was the Arevalo show. The Wolverines sophomore, who had a 3-0 record with an ERA of one coming into the day, was efficient, making the Lions offense put balls in play, and then watching as the defense did their job. The biggest defensive play of the game came in the sixth inning, when Lazaro Rodriguez led off with a single. Alex Rodriguez then hit a hard ground ball that Cabrera turned into a 6-4-3 double play.

“Alex Cabrera is one of the best defensive shortstops in the county,” said Belen Manager Jerry Albert. “The defense as a whole played great, and Pablo was tremendous on the mound. He’s a good young arm that isn’t afraid of the moment.”

The win moved the Wolverines to the top of the district, and, maybe more importantly for Belen, came against a team that has had their number over the past few seasons.

“There’s definitely pressure in games like this,” said Arevalo. “But I couldn’t ask for a better team to play on. These guys are amazing. We’re like a band of brothers. They pick me up all the time with their great defense. It’s fun to win games like this, but we know that we haven’t reached our goal yet.”

The only run on the night for Mater came in the top of the seventh, when Danny Reyes launched a solo shot to deep left field. Even with the loss, the Lions are in the thick of the district race, and will get another crack at the Wolverines on April 10th, when the two teams meet at Belen.

“We have to learn from this game,” said DiRosa. “We have to still work hard, and it’s good to know we just can’t come on the field and roll over other teams. Tonight, all the credit goes to their pitcher and that defense. Hopefully next time around it will be us that executes.”

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