Caradonna, Stallions Off To Hot Start On Summer Baseball Circuit

ST. LOUIS – After intently following the Gateway Athletic Conference baseball season this past spring, and knowing that many of that league’s best players would be on his St. Louis Stallions SLABA League team, head coach Scott Seddon couldn’t wait for the summer season to get here.

The Stallions, whose roster is made up almost entirely of players from the Fort Zumwalt School District, won the regular season and postseason SLABA League championships last season, and advanced all the way to the quarterfinal round of the NABF World Series last July.

After surviving all the rain back in May, the 2011 summer season began officially for the Stallions with a win on Memorial Day.

But this past weekend has been when the summer fun has really started for the Stallions, who won their third game in a row in the Billiken Blue Invitational on Saturday at UMSL, 4-1, against the St. Louis Sting.

“We’ve gotten off to a good start,” Seddon said. “The hitters haven’t quite gotten off like I thought they would. But our pitching has been excellent. I knew we’d have a good staff, but these guys have been fantastic so far.”

ace Tanner Trokey and Fort Zumwalt North standouts Wade Rothermich and Joey Siegler are all members of the Stallions staff this summer, but the pitching star on Saturday was recent Fort Zumwalt North graduate Lew Caradonna.

The lefty from St. Peters was magnificent on Saturday, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and only allowing two hits total, while striking out 12, in a what proved to be a dominant complete-game win, his first of the summer, after going 4-2 for the Panthers during the spring.

“Lew really impressed me today,” Seddon said. “I knew of him, but I didn’t know a whole about him because he just joined us this season. But he really is an impressive player, and wow, what a ballgame he threw today.”

Caradonna, whose already signed on to play at Lindenwood University next year, looked every bit like a top college pitcher on Saturday, mowing down the Sting with ease and striking out at least one batter in all seven innings.

In fact, from the end of the second inning to the beginning of the fifth, Caradonna struck out six of the nine batters he faced, and hardly broke a sweat doing it, despite the record 100 degree temperatures.

“I thought maybe Lew could be our No. 3 or No. 4 (starting pitcher),” Seddon said. “But with our No. 1 and No. 2 out right now, he’s got a real opportunity to show us something here. And man, he showed us a lot today.”

’s Cody Spotanski was the star at the plate for the Stallions.

Affter getting hit by a pitch in the third inning,  he stole second, then raced all the way around to score on a double by Rothermich for the first run of the game.

An inning later, Spotanksi provided the Stallions with all the cushion they would need. He drove in two runs, one of which was St. Peters native and current Meramec Community College player John Sesti, with a smash single up the middle that made the score 4-0 at the time.

“We got some timely hitting today,” Seddon said. “But with the guys we have in our lineup, we should really be able to do some damage. I’m sure we’ll really start to get the bats going here pretty soon.”  

If the Stallions keep getting pitching like they did on Saturday, they won’t need to hit.

Caradonna didn’t give up his first hit until a leadoff double by recent Webster Groves High grad Nick Sondag began the sixth inning.

Sondag eventually came around to score the Sting's only run of the game, but losing the no-hitter didn’t seem to faze Caradonna at all.

He got the final two outs of the sixth on strikeouts, then he struck out the side in the seventh, to end the game as brilliantly as he began it.

The victory moved the Stallions to 5-0 this summer.

Next week, the Stallions will get back to SLABA League play, with a series of home games at T.R. Hughes Ballpark in O’Fallon, Founder’s Park in Lake St. Louis, and at Timberland High School in Wentzville.

On Tuesday, the Stallions will host the St. Louis Tigers at 5:30 p.m. at T.R. Hughes. On Wednesday, they’ll play the St. Louis Outlawz in a non-league game at Founder’s Park at 8 p.m.

Then on Thursday, the Stallions will take on the St. Peters Post #313 American Legion team at Timberland High at 5:45 p.m., before concluding the week with a noon doubleheader on Saturday, at T.R. Hughes, against the Jefferson County Barnstormers.