#image_title

Short Memory, Big Wins: St. John Vianney Walks Off With Sixth Straight Win

Matt Manley|April 11, 2026|Last Updated April 11, 2026

HOLMDEL — Opening day is as anticipated as any date on the calendar for a high school baseball player, even if it does not always live up to the hype. In the case of the St. John Vianney baseball team, it was a nightmare.

“We had seven errors in the field, nine strikeouts at the plate,” St. John Vianney coach Bob Klatt said. “It was all correctable stuff, so we just went back to the drawing board.”

Instead of making too much of a blowout loss, the Lancers leaned on their experience, chemistry and — strangely enough, considering the 18 runs allowed in game one — their pitching to orchestrate an immediate turnaround that has them off to their best start in more than a decade.

On Friday, St. John Vianney rode more solid pitching from senior Dylan Blackman and junior Matt Baczor through seven innings, then delivered come final at-bat heroics to secure a 4-3 win over Red Bank Regional that extends the Lancers’ winning streak to six.

“They have been buying in,” said Klatt, now in his second year as head coach after serving as an assistant under longtime skipper Mike Morgan. “They are working hard and understanding what I’m about. It’s only the second of my philosophy, but they understand what I want from them.”

The Lancers squandered a 3-0 lead Friday, but got the last laugh when junior designated hitter Wyatt Lewis launched a deep fly ball to leftfield with two out that dropped just in front of the warning track to score junior shortstop Nick Vitiello from third base with the winning run.

“It was one loss and it was the first game of the season,” Lewis said. “We put it in the past and we just focused on getting better. You can’t let one game get you too high or too low, especially when it’s the first game of the year. Everybody looks forward to opening day, but it’s just the first game.”

The 6-1 start to the season is the best since SJV went 6-1 to start 2015, which was the year after the Lancers won the NJSIAA Non-Public A championship and finished No. 1 in New Jersey.

“Everyone has each other’s back,” Blackman said. “You can hear it in the dugout when I’m pitching and when it’s somebody else on the mound, we’re all cheering that guy on, letting them know we got his back too. We all all love each other. I know we’re from different towns and it’s a private school, but we have a great bond with each other.”

In the six games since the opening-day loss, St. John Vianney has allowed just 12 runs and Blackman and Baczor have been as instrumental as any two pitchers in what has been a well-rounded Lancers staff. Coming off a one-hit shutout in a 2-0 win over Freehold Township on March 30, Blackman blanked Red Bank through the first five innings on Friday, then retired the first two batters of the sixth inning.

“We talked after that first game and we knew we needed to be a brotherhood, be a family and stick together,” said senior catcher Tyler Shpiro, who drove in a run Friday with a third-inning RBI single. “It starts with the pitching and those guys throwing strikes, guys backing them up in the field and everyone just doing their job at bat. We have been on a roll since then.”

Even with his senior left-hander cruising, Klatt was prepared to go to Baczor in the seventh inning. The right-hander saved three of the previous five wins during the streak and the only earned run he allowed in his first four appearances was against Howell with the game already out of reach.

“(Blackman) knew he wasn’t pitching the seventh, but I wanted to give him a chance to finish the sixth and maybe keep Baczor to only one inning, but Baczor was getting the seventh no matter what,” Klatt said. “He gave up two quick hits and then the run, we got Matt in there and they tied it up. The good thing is these guys are fighting. They don’t let the ups and downs get to them and they are playing 21 outs. It’s not always pretty, but it doesn’t always have to be. You just have to find a way to win.”

Klatt went to Baczor earlier than the seventh after Red Bank touched Blackman for three straight singles, the third of which was an RBI single by junior Casey Lillis to bring home junior third baseman Chris Doody. Baczor took over and after Lillis stole second to move the tying run into scoring position, senior Graham Reppert pulled a single through the left side to bring in the tying runs, drawing the Bucs even, 3-3.

The late-game runs have become a theme for Red Bank, which has lost three straight after winning its first three. In back-to-back losses to Marlboro, the Bucs scored five of their seven runs in the final two innings of an 8-7 loss, then scored four of their five in an 8-5 loss to the Mustangs. On Friday at St. John Vianney, they came alive for three runs in the top of the sixth, but Baczor set down the side in order in the top of the seventh to set the stage for the bottom of the seventh.

“The best thing about baseball is you get to play tomorrow if you lose and if you make a mistake, you get a chance to make up for it,” Shpiro said. “Right now, we’re energized. It doesn’t matter what the score is, who the other team is, we are a family and we’re playing together right now.”

Red Bank reliever Jack Monahan hit senior C.J. Pizzirusso leading off the inning, then junior second baseman Mike Capaldo hit a one-out single to put runners on first and second. Shpiro then shot a grounder past the pitcher’s mound, but Red Bank junior shortstop Joe Henry made a diving stop and flip to Lillis and second base for the force out.

With two out and runners on the corners, Lewis launched a deep fly ball that carried over the head of senior leftfielder Jason Huss and scored Vitiello to end the game.

“I was just looking to attack first-pitch fastball and he gave it to me,” Lewis said. “I just waited on it and I wanted a line drive. It wasn’t a line drive, but it was good enough. Once I hit, I was just thinking, ‘Please get down’ or ‘Go over the fence.’ He (Huss) kept running, so I thought maybe it was gone. I didn’t think it was gone when I hit it but the wind started kicking up and it kept going, I thought maybe it would go.”

St. John Vianney opened the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the third, which began with back-to-back singles by junior Tyler McDougall and senior Jalen Rodriguez, with McDougall going to third on Rodriguez’s single and Rodriguez later stealing second base. A wild pitch brought home McDougall and Rodriguez scored on an RBI single to right by Shpiro to give St. John Vianney a 2-0 lead. Capaldo, who drew a walk before Shpiro’s single, scored the third run when he stole third, then came home after the throw skipped into leftfield.

With a three-run lead, Blackman breezed through the fourth on eight pitches, then struck out the side around an error in the top of the fifth. The southpaw used his three-pitch mix of fastball, curveball and changeup to keep Red Bank hitters off-balance two times through the order, which was also his formula in his eight-strikeout, one-hitter vs. Freehold Township the week prior.

“The changeup was really working,” Blackman said. “That’s what was getting them to roll over on a lot of those pitches. Then I was able to locate that outside fastball to set it up. Then it was just about keeping the ball low, because the times I left it up, they got the ball to the outfield.”

Blackman threw only seven innings as a junior and while his 10 strikeouts in those seven innings showed promise, he consistently worked deep into counts and surrendered nine runs (six earned) on 12 hits and five walks. He did not walk a batter Friday and struck out eight for the second straight start, giving him 16 strikeouts, three walks and only six hits allowed in 12 2/3 innings to start 2026.

“He doesn’t throw hard, but he’s a pitcher,” Klatt said of Blackman. “When he hits his spots, he keeps people off-balance. If he gets in a rhythm, he’s good. Last year, he struggled. A big thing we worked on in the offseason was not going deep into the count. He used to go 3-2 all the time and drive us crazy with his pitch count and even in the preseason, he threw 50 pitches in two innings. He realized he had to start pounding the zone and he’s doing a great job keeping hitters off-balance.”

“Hitting the strike zone is a big thing,” Blackman said. “I went to 3-0 on a kid in the second inning and came back to strike him out, which was big. After that, I felt like everything was working and I could just pitch my game. After that, I didn’t really fall behind a ton until that last inning.”

McDougall, Blackman, senior Thomas Dunn and Baczor are St. John Vianney’s innings leaders thus far and, combined with junior Joe Weber, they have spread out the wins among them. Dunn is 2-0, while Baczor, Blackman, McDougall and Weber each have one win. After suffering the loss at Howell, McDougall struck out eight over 4 2/3 innings in a win over Marlboro, then pitched six one-hit innings vs. Holmdel in a no-decision.

“If I’m being honest, I didn’t expect them to be this good,” said Lewis, who is also a catcher for the Lancers. “They have upgraded this last year. The coaching staff is doing a great job with them, getting them to pound the zone, throw strikes and those guys are getting it done.”

While the 6-1 start is the best in 11 years, St. John Vianney does have more recent success to aspire to in its quest to break through with a Shore Conference Class C North championship. The 2022 Lancers went 18-7-1, reached the quarterfinals of the Shore Conference Tournament and the semifinals of the NJSIAA South Jersey Non-Public A Playoffs. The current group of SJV seniors entered high school as freshmen the following year and are hoping to have a season similar to that one before they graduate.

With two wins over Marlboro and two wins over Holmdel and its two Division I starting pitchers — Dylan Zammit (NJIT) and Jack Vallillo (Seton Hall) — St. John Vianney is positioned to win its first division title since taking the Class A Central championship in 2015.

“I love these guys,” Blackman said. “SJV hasn’t been this good since I don’t know when. Since I have been here, it’s been kind of a struggle but now we’re back and it’s great. I’m having so much fun.”

Related Articles