One word that can summarize Oratory Prep Baseball’s last week is CHAOTIC. The Rams came into the week not expecting to be playing for the outright Mountain Division title since they began the week in second place. All the Rams could do at the beginning of this week was tie it, until the Johnson Crusaders beat the Elizabeth Minutemen 3-0. Elizabeth would finish the season 9-3 in the Mountain as well as Johnson sitting at 7-2. With a win over Dayton in a 15 run slugfest, the Rams now sat at 9-2 in division play with one more game left to play. This mean that Union was the last game to either result in the outright title or share it with two other teams. The Rams clearly showed that they wanted it all for themselves and nobody else.
Freshman Jacob Minnefor took the hill for the Rams for his second start of the season and only third varsity appearence. After working around men on with two outs, Minnefor proceeded to get the Union hitter to pop out to end the first inning. The Rams opened up the scoring in the top half of the second inning. With runners on first and second, Ben Gaffney drove in Blake Duddy to make the game 1-0. The Rams were not done on the offensive side, as Patrick Keown drove in another run in a 3 hit performance. Gaffney then drove in another run to make the Rams lead 3-0 in the top half of the fourth. Minnefor, throughout, was dominant, going 7 innings, striking out 7, and allowing no earned runs and only two hits. Patrick Keown added another RBI to his resume, driving in Will Kostka for some insurance. The Rams went onto win this game 4-1 to capture the Mountain Division Title for the first time in school history. It is the first time OP baseball has won a division since 2019. Oratory now sits 16-6 with two games left to play before the state tournament on May 28.
