Breaking Down Baseball - Preseason 2025

There are a lot of expectations when it comes to playing at St. Joe’s Prep. Every sport comes down to playing at the highest level and the coaches will push you to new levels you thought your body couldn’t go to. Alumni of all of our programs certainly know the feeling and the pressure of putting on the Crimson and Gray. While there have been high expectations for our football, basketball, lacrosse, and crew, those levels of expectation never seem to come around for baseball. This year, that expectation for baseball is going straight to the moon. According to the PCL Baseball Instagram page, St. Joe’s Prep is ranked the second best team in the Philadelphia Catholic League behind LaSalle College High School.

The Prep has never been in the conversation to have one of the best teams over the last few years. Why are they at the top of the rankings now? Let's go over my projected lineup and I think you  will understand why they are ranked so high. Starting out at left field should be Chris Grasso ‘27. The brother of Robby has been all over social media with his ranking in the top ten of best baseball players in the class of 2027 in Pennsylvania. In 9 varsity games played last season, Chris batted .250 but only recorded two hits. He can also play second and third base but the team believes he is more suited for left field as he has a high baseball IQ and a cannon of an arm. We should watch out for him as a pitcher this season as well. During the offseason he recorded a 95.4 miles per hour exit velocity and a 92 MPH fastball velocity off the mound just before this season. We also might see Jack Sayer ‘25 get some reps at left field in the beginning of the season as well. Sticking in the outfield, another speedy player that should be suiting up in center field is Chris Steinmetz ‘25. Steinmetz is recognized from his incredible play on the gridiron, but he steps into his senior year ready to help The Prep make a deep playoff run. Steinmetz played in 13 games last season and looked incredible, with 20 at bats and 8 hits which gave him a .400 average on the season. He also recorded an astonishing .970 OPS and 7 stolen bases as well. The outfield will round off with Pat Vezza ‘26 in right field. Pat has a lot of diversity in his game as he is also one of the best pitchers on the team. He did not get a hit last season on four plate appearances but he is looking to have a breakout senior season.

The infield for the Hawks certainly does not lack any talent either. Starting at first base for the second year in a row will be Jack Keenan ‘26. He also played designated hitter last season but occasionally played at first. In the games that I watched last season, I was certainly impressed with his ability to hustle to first on ground balls he hit, and his stretching ability on defense. Keenan was only a sophomore last season so we expect him to have a big year coming up. He hit .467 with a 1.100 OPS in 14 games played last season. Starting at second this season will be Tommy Murtha ‘25. Tommy was in and out of the lineup with only 11 games played last season but he did bat .421 in 26 plate appearances. While he is a strong batter, he is also a very good defender.

On the other side of second base we will see Johnny Sitler ‘26 at shortstop. It seems like the class of 2026 has some great infielders as Sitler batted .295 with a .774 OPS and tied Robby Grasso ‘25 with 8 stolen bases last season. Sitler was also tied for second in total runs last season with Sayer, and they only trailed Grasso. To end the infield rotation is likely the Hawks’ best player, R. Grasso. Grasso has been a model athlete during his time playing for the Hawks and is looking to step up his game to an even bigger level. Grasso committed to play college baseball at Lehigh University on September 6th, 2023 and has given the coaches at Lehigh a reason to be impressed. In 18 games last season, Grasso finished with a batting average of .286, including 16 hits and five runs batted in. He also recorded a team-high in stolen bases with eight. While Grasso can pitch and play in the outfield, he should be best suited for third this season.

To round out the starting lineup, I see Emilio Iannaccone ‘26 starting at catcher this season. He led the JV team in hits last season so that is all you need to know about how good he is as a hitter. Defensively, he is a great framer, a phenomenal blocker, and has a good arm behind the plate. There will be a competition this season at designated hitter between back up left fielder Sayer and back up catcher Dylan Palantino ‘25. In 15 games played last season, Sayer batted .421 with an incredible 1.016 OPS. Palantino was not in the lineup much as he did only play in 7 games and only batted .222 with just 2 hits though he has put in the work this offseason and arguably has the best power on the team right now. While Sayer’s hitting stats are definitely better from last season, it all depends on what new varsity baseball Coach Muth ‘04 has seen at the team’s Spring Training down in Florida from March 10-14.

At the end of the day, great pitching beats great hitting and The Prep has great pitching all around this season. Mihretu Rupertus ‘26 should be the Hawks opening day starting pitcher as he posted a 1.00 ERA in 5 appearances last season. R. Grasso has a good low to mid 90’s pitch, Murawski has a mid 80’s 2-seam fastball, Swarthmore commit Eddie Dingle ‘25 throws in the low 80’s, Kieran Lodewick ‘25 who is committed to Scranton should be the teams best reliever and could be starting on some occasions, and Mike Capilato ‘25 an Eastern commit will unfortunately not be playing this season due to injury. To round out the upperclassmen pitching group is Cole Blanch ‘25, Danny Matthews ‘26, Vezza, George Van Dean ‘26, and Nolan Kaub ‘26. Expect a few underclassmen other than C. Grasso such as Cole Kuhn ‘27 to lead the charge as a reliever as he posted a 3.28 ERA in 7 appearances in freshman baseball last season. Alex Erespe ‘27 could get a call up from JV as a pitcher with a few good performances and David Locher ‘27 could get a call up as well as he is one of the best catchers The Prep has.

The Prep does not lack competition this season as they have some tough opponents. The best teams The Prep will face this season include LaSalle, Archbishop Ryan, Conwell Egan, the always tough Neumann Goretti, and Father Judge. I expect The Prep to at least be top two this season and the reason I don’t say number one is because the Hawks need to prove that they can beat LaSalle. Last season they did lose a close 1-0 battle in the first game of the season. During home games, The Prep will host honorary first pitches from students such as Anthony Sacca ‘25 and Olin Chamberlain ‘25 so that is one of the many reasons to make the trip to FDR Park this Spring. The nest, fans, and alumni should come out this season to watch an absolute show as this should be one of the best Hawks baseball teams we have seen in a long time.