Patriots’ promising start: Young Revere team shows potential for postseason comeback

By Dom Nicastro

The Revere High School baseball team has played competitively in every one of its games so far.

The results: The Patriots are 3-2 and are on the brink of winning another unfinished game. They took Medford to eight innings and a 3-3 tie in a game that will be finished later in the season.

All in all? Not a bad start at all for the team looking to get back to the postseason after being painfully one game short last spring at 9-11. Revere made the postseason in 2021 and 2022.

This week, the team beat Malden (11-1) and Everett (9-1) for a couple of Greater Boston League victories.

Against Everett, sophomore Domenic Bellia got the win, going the distance and allowing three hits, three walks and one earned run.

Junior Brendan Sack went 2-for-2 with a double, two RBI, two walks and a run. Junior Seth Sullivan went 2-for-4 with two RBI and a run, and junior Ismael El Gharbi had a hit, two RBI, a stolen base and played solid defense.

Against Malden, the team got a 3-for-3 day out of Sack, with a double, two runs and two RBI. Sullivan added three RBI and two hits and two runs. Ollie Svendsen went 2-for-2 with a walk and three runs. Christian Flores added two hits and as many RBI, and Kyle Cummings had a double and two RBI to help his own cause – in five innings, he struck out seven, walked none and allowed one earned run.

Freshman Joe Angiulo got the win over Chelsea in a rout, showing a lot of poise for a freshman on the hill, according to seventh-year coach Mike Manning.

“Everyone who was on the lineup card was in the lineup,” Manning said of the Malden game. “It was definitely a full team win with everyone contributing. And I think that’s important. We went out and got some food after together as a team. So, it just seems like we’re coming together.   And we had a little bit of a bumpy start to start the season. But we’re definitely coming together.”

Manning said this is the youngest and most inexperienced team he’s had with the fewest number of players returning from the prior year. Revere does not have a junior varsity team this year because it didn’t have the numbers, meaning some younger players are getting some varsity action this spring.

That’s made it a fun process: teaching the youngsters the intricacies of the game.

“We have a lot of new guys in new places,” Manning said. “We have some guys that are not playing their primary positions. They’re making sacrifices for us around the diamond.”

The team’s losses came in the nonleague department: 5-2 to Peabody and 7-3 to Weston, a team that was 17-3 in Division 3 in the regular season last spring.

In that game, Sack had a solo home run, while Svendsen had a pair of hits and a run and junior Seth Sullivan drilled a double and added a run.

Cummings, a senior captain coming off a perfect season on the mound last spring, returns on the hill as the team’s ace this spring. He’s a captain alongside three-sport athlete Svendsen, coming off a golf and hockey season. Svendsen will also get the ball on the mound this season.

Cummings will handle shortstop when not pitching; Svendsen third base. Sack handles first, and Flores will be handling duties at second base.

“They are the two major horses that are going to throw the majority of the innings for us on the mound,” said Manning, who is assisted by Richie DiMarco and Sebastian Salvo. “Kyle is our ace, and Ollie’s another veteran. They have two different styles of pitching. Ollie has a fastball and curve. He’s got a four-seam and a two-seam fastball mixed in with a curve. And he has a lot of movement on his two-seam fastball. And he just doesn’t walk anybody. He makes you earn it.”

Sullivan has stepped up for the Patriots to do the catching. It was not his primary position.

“But he’s really kind of accepted the role and is working at it to try to get better, and he’s already hit the ground running,” Manning said. “He’s already thrown out a few base runners a few games into the season. So, he’s been great for us behind the dish.”

The outfield will see a mix of players from all grades: Freshman Angiulo, sophomore Frankie Annunziata, sophomore Nicholas Rupp, junior Danny Hou, senior Chase Smith, sophomore Marc Maisano and sophomore George Papalambros.

“We did get off to a bumpy start,” Manning said. “We were not handling our business the way we wanted to handle our business on and off the field. And we have since addressed it, and I feel really good about the way we’ve approached things in our last few wins, not just the baseball, but everything.”