The Phelps School Baseball Program Makes History

As junior, Steffon Rolle (Nassau, Bahamas) gripped the baseball on the mound at Scanlon Park in Philadelphia with two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, his thoughts drifted oddly enough to the Lyons Basketball Gym on the campus of The Phelps School about 30 miles away. Adorning the walls of the gym are all of the championship banners in the seventy-five year history of the all boys boarding school in Malvern. Every sport that Phelps has participated in since its inception boasts a championship banner: soccer, cross country, golf, wrestling, tennis, lacrosse, even the 2015 state championship for basketball. All except one: baseball. As Rolle prepares to notch his sixth strike out in two innings of relief following a dazzling twelve strike out performance from classmate Austin Dimitri (Phoenixville, PA), he is about to erase 75 years of "almosts," "what ifs," and "not quites." As The Community Academy of Philadelphia batter swung and missed, a celebration seventy-five years in the making ensued having completed the 9-3 victory and securing the 2021 Penn Jersey League White Division Championship.

While Rolle and Dimitri limited the number of defensive opportunities for Phelps fielders, it was a fourth inning seed from freshman catcher, Ezra Pate (Baltimore, MD) that ended a CAP rally as he gunned down the runner attempting to steal second. Phelps Assistant, Andrew Mangabat, talked about the play: "Ezra's throw was huge for us. CAP was putting together some good at bats, and he got us out of a jam." Offensively Rolle and Dimitri were joined by Senior Muso Mansurov (Khujand, Tajikistan) who reached base four times and senior Caelin Peters (King of Prussia, PA) in contributing to the nine run offensive outburst. Peters was 3 for 4 but saved his most exciting play for the basebath. With the score 2-1, Peters got caught in a run down between third and home. CAP executed the rundown perfectly for six throws while Peters alluded tags. On the seventh throw, the Connecticut College bound basketball recruit put a spin move on a "would be" tag and ran home to score easily as the CAP defender soared his throw over the catcher's head. Phelps would never look back.

Head Coach, Mike Mansi said of the team's effort, "All season the coaching staff preached playing our way: relying on our pitching, being patient at the plate and aggressive on the basepaths. We knew if we could do those things well, we had a shot to make history. After all that the world has been through this year with COVID, I can't think of a better way to end the school year for our community than our first baseball championship." Three years ago, Phelps built a spectacular new basketball gym on campus. While the inside is beautiful, one can't help but notice it is missing something: a championship banner. No Phelps team had won a championship since the building had been built. On the van ride back to campus, Rolle smiled knowing that the first one will be the baseball team's.