Baseball walks off St. John’s Prep in come from behind victory

April 25th, 2025 • The Rockets’ bats came alive against the Eagles, with 10 total hits. 

Needham baseball bested St. John’s Prep 7-6 in extra innings on April 23 at Memorial Park, battling back after trailing by five runs at the end of the third inning. 

For the second time in two weeks, Alex Rufo delivered the game-winning hit for the Rockets, who improved to 2-5 with the win. 

Needham got off to a hot start in the first inning, with back-to-back singles at the top of the order from Nolan Gannon and Will Saratella to put two runners on base with no outs. After advancing to second and third base on a double steal, Eagles pitcher Anthony Sanderson picked off Saratella at second for the first out, leaving Gannon on third. Gannon would eventually score when Sanderson attempted to pick off Will O’Donnell at first base, but the Eagles’ throw home was off target.

In the top of the third, St. John’s Prep evened the score on a throwing error, and they quickly loaded the bases against Rockets pitcher Will Cassidy. Tyler Spear then delivered a three-run triple to put the Eagles up 4-1. St. John’s Prep added two more runs in the inning to take a commanding five-run lead.

But, the Rockets would slowly battle back, scoring one run in the bottom of the third off a two-out RBI double from O’Donnell before breaking it open in the fourth to pull within one run. Matt Ferriera brought the first of three runs in the inning home with a single into left field, followed by a walked-in run with Gannon batting and a fielder’s choice RBI from Saratella. 

Down 6-5 at the top of the fifth inning, the Rockets brought Saratella to pitch, who went 3.1 innings without giving up a hit, keeping Needham in striking distance of the Eagles. 

With a runner on second and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Ferriera recorded his second RBI of the day, this time to tie the game at six apiece and push the game to extra innings. 

Saratella quickly retired the top of the St. John’s Prep lineup in the eighth, setting the Rockets up to walk it off in the bottom of the inning. O’Donnell got on base with a single with one out and stole second to put himself in scoring position. He reached third on a fielder’s choice, bringing Alex Rufo up to bat for Needham. On a 1-2 count with two outs, he singled to the second baseman to score the game-winning run, giving Needham their second win of the season. 

It was Rufo’s second game winning hit of the season, the earlier one coming from a sacrifice fly in Needham’s 1-0 victory over Walpole on April 14.

Freshman Colton Harjula had an impressive performance, recording his first varsity hit and scoring the game-tying run in the win. 

The Rockets will look to make it two wins in a row for the first time this season when they face off against Newton North (3-5) on Monday, April 28, at 4:30 p.m. on the road. 

Sports Anchor Mike Levin has the highlights from this game below:

The highlights above ran as part of the Needham Channel News, a weekly newscast airing on The Needham Channel every Thursday at 7:30pm. The Needham Channel News can be found on the Community Channel: Comcast 9, Astound 15 and Verizon 29. Most Thursdays it also can be viewed on our HD Channel on Verizon 2129, Astound 613 and streaming on this site.