Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
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Extra motivation isn’t needed when St. Thomas Aquinas and Nova face off, but the Titans provided some in the week leading up to the matchup between the bitter baseball rivals.
A Snapchat video surfaced of someone in Nova practice attire walking into a room, spitting on a St. Thomas Aquinas shirt that was on the floor positioned as a doormat and wiping his feet with it. The video made its way around the Aquinas baseball team and eventually onto Raiders coach Troy Cameron’s Instagram page.
When they finally met for the first time since last year’s regional final on Wednesday night at St. Thomas, it was Nick Vera and Andres Antonini wiping their feet on home plate after Raiders home runs and then closer Nate Thomas on the mound after striking out a batter for the final out in a 5-2 win in a matchup that could be a Class 8A regional final preview.
“We had that planned the whole time,” said Vera, a junior catcher whose two-run homer in the first put Aquinas up, 3-0. “That little video that they posted — us seeing that, that’s just extra motivation,” Vera said. “It definitely got everybody hyped. Everybody definitely got excited after that.”
Antonini, a senior shortstop and Pitt signee, hit a solo homer in the fifth. He was going to head back to the dugout without wiping his feet on the plate, but a teammate reminded him to do so and turned around.
“Both teams, on the field, don’t like each other,” Cameron said. “Off the field, we’ll do whatever we can to help each other out in times needed, but on the field, they’re our rival. We’re going to do our best to put it on them.”
Senior right-hander and Davidson signee Blake Hely got the win, pitching five innings, giving up two runs — one earned — on five hits and striking out six for Aquinas (19-3). With the three-run lead, Trent Sobolewski pitched a scoreless sixth and Thomas took the Titans (17-2) down in order in the seventh for the save.
North Carolina signee Caleb Roberts doubled down the right-field line to drive in a run before Vera’s homer to left for Roberts’ 39th RBI on the season.
Last season, the two teams met in the Region 4-8A final and Nova won a 12-inning thriller to move onto states. The Raiders had won 11 previous meetings.