By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher Holy Spirit baseball coach Steve Normane will tell you that a 3-2 win over Ocean City was the turning point in the Spartans’ 2015 season. Wait a minute. Aren’t the Spartans 11-16, and didn’t they lose five straight after that win? How could that win be a turning point in the season? It’s true, Holy Spirit currently is five games under .500. But that win over Ocean City — a team that won 17 games, finished third in the brutal Cape-Atlantic League American Conference and garnered a top seed in the South Jersey Group 3 playoffs — proved to the Spartans that they had the talent to make a run in the South Jersey Non-Public B state playoffs. The win over the Red Raiders also happened to be the coming out party for sophomore pitcher Bobby Spicer. Spicer spent his freshman year on the junior varsity team, and although Normane said earlier this season that he was hoping for a breakout season from the young right-hander, it would have been too much to expect it. 
Rising star Billy Kral, a sophomore, gets the call on the mound today as Holy Spirit takes on Gil St. Bernard’s in the semifinals of the South Jersey Non-Public B state tournament. Pitching has been the key for Holy Spirit, particularly finding that second arm to compliment Kral in the playoff rotation. Kral will take his turn today after Spicer got the Spartans to this point with a pair of playoff wins, with some help from Jules Massella, another underclassman who has emerged as perhaps the top closer in the Cape-Atlantic League. “(Spicer) put us on his back through the first two rounds, and in this semifinal round we’re going to give the ball to Kral, and he’s proven he is one of the top sophomores in the country. He’s pitched well this year. Maybe the statistics aren’t there, but we have confidence in him,” Normane said. “And we have two seniors in (A.J.) Russo and (Anthony) Boselli who have won big games for us and they are on full rest, ready to go. Whatever happens we have confidence in our guy on the mound, and if we can get it to the sixth or seventh inning and hand it over to Jules, it makes the coach’s job easier.” A small group of seniors has led the way offensively, with new heroes emerging seemingly every game. Chris Lefferts blasted a 3-run home run against St. Joseph, and guys such as Russo and Marczyk have also come up big during the playoffs. “The bats have been led by our seniors, Boselli, Russo, Marczyk, Lefferts. It seems to be a different guy each time coming up with the big hit,” Normane said. “In the win over St. Joe’s in the first round, we put eight runs up and Lefferts hit a bomb, and then against St. Rose we had to manufacture runs. We scored on an RBI groundout and a squeeze bunt (in a 2-1 win). Whatever situation we are put in, we’re comfortable.” Normane said he would love to give the seniors, who graduate this weekend, a proper send-off with a berth in the South Jersey Non-Public B championship game. “They graduate on Sunday and I told them I’d like to still be playing baseball after they graduate,” Normane said. “We need one more win to make that happen. If we can get a win to get them to the South Jersey final that would be the best thanks we can give them for all that they have done for our program. These guys never quit on us.” Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Never-say-die Spartans look to keep hot streak going in South Jersey Non-Public B semifinals
