Joe Mauer '01 and High School Coach Jim O'Neill '74 Reconnect at CDH Baseball Game

May 22, 2024

CDH baseball hosted a special matinée on Friday, May 17 versus conference and section rival Stillwater. The game was special in a lot of ways, but none more special than celebrating two of our CDH Hall-of-Famers, Joe Mauer ’01 and Jim O’Neill ’74. Mauer is having quite the year being inducted to the Catholic Athletic Association, Mancini’s, National Federation of State High School Association, and Major League Baseball Hall-of-Fames. O’Neill has been elected to the 2024 CDH Hall-of-Fame this year as well. To celebrate these tremendous accomplishments, we had O’Neill throw the opening pitch to Mauer to start the game in front of a large crowd at Shrode field.

As if the opening celebration wasn’t enough, the Ponies and Raiders battled in a back-and-forth game. PJ Jones '24 pitched a tremendous game and Davis Fleming '26 delivered the heroic 3-run home run to beat the Ponies 5-4 in extra innings in true walk-off fashion. Fleming said that it was "amazing to be around such a great player on the field, and an honor to be able to talk to and learn from such an incredible player/person." It was a tremendous day for the CDH community.