PHILADELPHIA- Aidan Frye thought his baseball season was over on April 19. A severe injury to his left ankle and leg necessitated being driven off the field in a cart in the early stages of a 3-2 loss to Malvern Prep.

With the score tied at 7-7, Frye stood at the plate with the bases loaded and no outs. It was his first at bat since the aforementioned injury, and Frye tried to mentally downplay the situation.

 “All I was thinking,” said Frye, “was hit the ball on the ground somewhere hard and make them make a play.”

 On the first pitch, that is precisely what he did. A grounder straight through the middle eluded the Quaker infielders and junior Jack Cucinotta, who had led off the inning with a long double, sped home with the winning run. 

Frye, who also pitched two innings of relief, experienced the traditional mobbing at first base by his ecstatic, and extremely relieved, teammates. 

“The feeling was unbelievable,” said Frye. “We were down and we were able to come back from such a deficit.” 

If the Blue Devils had lost to Penn Charter, they would have been eliminated from the Inter-Academic League race. Two innings in, that was precisely where they were headed.  

Taking advantage of several SCH injuries that necessitated placing players in unfamiliar defensive positions, the Quakers led, 6-1, heading into the home fourth. The Blue Devils were in desperation mode, but because there is no such thing as a five-run homer, they needed to chip away at their daunting deficit.

“The only thing we could do was to keep playing,” said SCH coach Joe Ishikawa. “Keep battling. Believe in each other.”   

Four SCH runs in the fourth dramatically altered the landscape. Even though Penn Charter added another run in the sixth and led, 7-5, the Blue Devils were still well within striking distance.

All the Blue Devils (6-3 league) have to do is beat Malvern Prep (7-2 league) on Friday afternoon in the final contest of the regular season. The Friars are 4-0 against Inter-Ac opponents at home and have outscored the opposition by 21 runs.

Although they understand they face a difficult task, the Blue Devils look forward to the challenge. 

“I think if we show up with the same energy that we had these last few innings today, I think we can definitely beat them,” said Frye. 

Added Rowland: “As a senior, the one thing you wanna end on is an Inter-Ac championship. We lost to Malvern as sophomores. We don’t want to repeat that.” 

Aside from Frye, SCH’s most potent contributor was Diaz. In addition to his two-run homer, Diaz singled home a run on two different occasions. But the round-tripper excited Diaz most. 

“I had no idea it was going to get out,” said Diaz, who was playing on an injured knee. “I was hoping it would be a double. When it cleared the fence my mind just . . . I was so happy that I just did that for my team and we were still in the game and had a chance to win. 

“I was so happy running the bases. It’s hard to describe. I feel awesome right now. I’m just happy to be playing for an Inter-Ac championship tomorrow.”

Frye figures to pitch against Malvern, either in relief or as a starter. 

“Pitching to me has always been my greatest ability,” said Frye.

“Coming out here and stepping on this field and seeing these guys trying to take the win from us ... I just go out there and I say, ‘You know what? This is my field. I'm going to come right at you."  

“Throughout this whole year, it's just been, ‘Get the seniors the Inter-Ac championship.’ That's just been my mindset going out on the mound. I want to win this for these guys. These guys are now my family.”