Mark Fohner didn’t think he’d be here.
The Archbishop Carroll senior came into baseball’s offseason workouts in a situation that was a far cry from where he found himself in Monday afternoon’s 2-1 Philadelphia Catholic League win over Archbishop Ryan, striking out Ryan junior Pat Fitzgerald to secure Carroll’s first back-to-back PCL victories in nearly three years.
“I am more than grateful for my coaches,” said Fohner. “From where I was starting this offseason to where I am now, I mean, I’ve worked on so many things and I’ve gotten so much better at doing my job.”
In the offseason, not many thought Fohner would play a role anywhere near what he has stepped into this year. With the now-injured Bennett Bishop (’26) and Matt McGaughey (’25) at the top of the rotation, Fohner was looked at as a gyral option at the back end. However, when Bishop went down with an elbow injury in the winter, it became clear that both McGaughey and Fohner would need to step up for the Patriots.
For the most part they did — in the early going, at least, like when Carroll collected a 13-0 opening day win over Germantown Friends. After that, the Pats pitching staff let up 13, 14, and 10 runs in their next three games.
Following a 4-3 win over Upper Darby, the Patriots let up another eight runs to Cardinal O’Hara last week.
In Carroll’s last two games, however, it’s been locked down from the bump as the Pats’ two big arms in McGaughey and Fohner took turns shutting down both Lansdale Catholic and Ryan.
McGaughey rendered the Crusaders scoreless through four innings and brought home a one run shutout back on Wednesday when the Patriots took home the 2-1 win. Fohner did the same Monday against the Raiders, letting up just a run in the fourth inning and striking out five on the way to the club’s second consecutive complete game.
“He’s coachable and he doesn’t walk guys,” said Carroll head coach Pat Dunn. “When you don’t walk guys, you compete.”
Fohner did not record one walk in the contest while allowing just five hits. He was able to keep composure on the mound for nearly the entire game, even with runs on base against a Ryan lineup that features some of the toughest hitters in the Catholic League.
While the Raiders also limited free passes, one of the two allowed by Ryan senior Jake Marchesano turned into the game’s tying run in the fifth inning. The run came across on a bloop RBI single from Drew Mulligan while junior John Thomson and freshman Ryan McGaughey, who reached on an error by the second baseman, came across the plate to give Carroll the 2-1 lead.
In a contest where it felt like any single run could be the one to put a club over the edge, that pretty much became the case as Marchesano corralled the Patriots’ offense for most of the afternoon, allowing just two hits all day. Carroll’s offense couldn’t get anything going through the first four innings while Marchesano struck out 11 Patriot batters.
Coming back out in the top of the sixth, Ryan couldn’t get much going aside from a single from Flash Krzywicki that got left stranded at second base. While the Carroll offense also didn’t see action in its half of the sixth, Fohner was able to set down the Raiders 1-2-3 in the top of the seventh to send the Patriots back to .500 overall and in Catholic League play.
“We kept the top of the order off of the bags,” said Dunn. “(Dave) Perez is a great hitter. He just flicked at the ball and almost hit one out to right-center, but we limited the damage at the top of the order and Mark took care of the rest by throwing strikes.”
With the win, Carroll claims one of their most impressive victories in recent memory, taking down a solid PCL playoff contender that consistently plays with the top clubs in the area and the league. Now at 4-4 on the season and 2-2 in the Catholic League, the Patriots will look ahead to Wednesday afternoon’s matchup with Roman Catholic down at FDR Park. They will attempt to get over the .500 marker this late into the season for the first time since 2022, when the club went 11-6 and 8-4 in the Catholic League.
