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Lou Spadaccini has a tough time picturing what life is going to be like without Al Baur, Mark Donato and Michael Riverso in his lineup.
Besides being the only three seniors on Neumann-Goretti’s baseball team, the trio has been with their same coach since age 9. Come June, while the coach is staying put at 10th and Moore streets, the three Catholic League all-stars are moving on to the college level.
Over the past decade, they’ve compiled quite the scrapbook of diamond memories, with one of the biggest — winning a Catholic League championship — coming during the 2009 season. Fittingly, on this farewell tour, the seniors and close friends plan on taking things a step further this spring by going out with a school-first PIAA state baseball title. The 9-1 Saints, who suffered their first defeat of the season Monday against Archbishop Carroll, were recently rated No. 19 nationally in a recent ESPN Rise Fab-50 poll.
The amazing run marks quite a reversal of fortune from the ’07 season — Spadaccini’s first year at Neumann-Goretti — when the squad recorded just three victories.
But the players knew all along that their friend, mentor and coach had what it took to make the Saints a championship caliber program.
“I knew with Lou as our coach we could easily do it all if we put in the hard work every single day,” Baur, of Second and Daly streets, said.
Donato, the reigning Blue Division MVP, shared a similar opinion.
“He is the best coach I’ve ever had for any sport,” the resident of Third and Ritner streets said. “He keeps us sharp, we practice everyday and he never lets us slip up.”
Spadaccini, who previously coached them as members of the Senators 9-year-old travel team and in the Delaware Valley Youth Athletic Association, based at 18th and Johnston streets, finds himself experiencing mixed emotions.
“They’re like my own sons,” he said of the three players. “It’s kind of a bittersweet year for me. We have a really strong team, but every game we play we get closer to the end.
“I’ve never had to coach a game without one of those kids there.”
When asked if he was considering moving on to the college ranks, Spadaccini couldn’t help but let out a little chuckle.
Donato, a first baseman and pitcher, and Baur, a third baseman and pitcher, are both planning to attend a Florida-based junior college, while Riverso is staying north to attend La Salle University.
Riverso, of the 2200 block of Juniper Street, said his coach is “one of a kind.”
“He taught me most of my game,” the outfielder, infielder and reliever said. “I’ve been playing with him since I was 8. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know if I would still be playing baseball today.”
Riverso broke the news to Spadaccini earlier this month that the Saints were nationally ranked.
For Donato, the bond extends well beyond the foul lines.
“He is like a dad to me,” he said of Spadaccini. “You can talk to him about anything you want.”
For now, a lot of the talk is about taking care of the unfinished business of winning a state championship. Last spring, in their first-ever appearance in states, the Saints advanced to the Class AAA semifinals, but lost 9-4 to Abington Heights. The defeat was all the motivation Donato and his teammates needed to turn things up a notch.
“I would love to win a state crown,” Riverso said. “I guess because we are now the favorites to win, everybody is going to try to knock us down.”
No matter what happens along this final leg of the journey, the players and their coach will have a tough time forgetting how they brought Neumann-Goretti baseball back up from the ashes as last year’s title run ended a nearly five-decade championship drought.
“It just proves to everyone how good of a coach he is and how much time he puts in to get us where we are,” Riverso said.
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