In the middle of the season, Coach Blauner got a game against Hanover Park on the schedule. Going into this game, Oratory Prep was 10-11 and needed a win to make them.500, but more importantly, to get them a bunch of power points to bump them up to a possible home game for the state tournament. You see, Hanover Park was 17-3 and if OP won, they would have gained over 60 power points. That is why Coach Blauner got this game really late. It was a bet that would have a lot of gains, but not a whole lot of losses. However, Oratory Prep lost against Hanover Park 5-0 in 7 innings. 

Although the score says differently, the game was pretty close. Oratory kept fighting. Hanover Park just had one of the best pitching performances you can have. Former Elon commit, Toby Smith, went 7 innings, 2 hits, and 15 K’s to put him at 200 strikeouts in his high school career. OP could not touch him. He was sitting in the upper 80s and could locate his pitches well. 

OP’s defense was actually pretty good though. Matt Seelagy pitched really well against a good team. MJ Cohen also pitched pretty well and Thomas Albanito, a freshman, got one out on a strikeout. 

All in all, Oratory Prep just played a really good team. They didn’t play bad. In fact, I would even say that they played well. They came back to face Summit on Wednesday, and after dropping that game as well they had extra motivation to play against Elizabeth, of whom the Rams defeated 12-6. Stay tunned for a more in depth-article concerning that win.