Holy Cross infielders to play 100th game together

Inning after inning, game after game, season after season, Joey Paolini always could look to his left and see the same thing.

Inning after inning, game after game, season after season, James Papeika always could look to his right and see the same thing.

Other teammates have changed. Opponents have changed.

Sites have changed. Situations have changed.

For Paolini, senior shortstop for the Holy Cross baseball team, one thing has remained the same: He always could look across the diamond and see Papeika at second base.

For Papeika, the same has been true: transition all around him, except for the identity of the kid at shortstop.

"It's been four years, but it feels like it's been longer than that," Paolini said of his partnership with Papeika, which will enter its fourth and final season on Friday as Holy Cross opens the baseball campaign against Riverside.

Paolini and Papeika weren't friends before high school.

"We met the first day" of school, Papeika said.

They don't play for the same teams in the summer and fall, and they won't attend the same college.

But they have more in common than initials.

"They're both grinders," said Holy Cross coach Steve Paolini, Joey's father. "They're baseball guys. They love the game. They're great kids. They're just drawn to each other."

They've both been infield starters since the first game of freshman year. Papeika was the third baseman as a ninth grader, so he was on Paolini's right.

But since sophomore season, they've been the Lancers' middle-infield combination.

"They're joined at the hip," Steve Paolini said. "We decided freshman year - and it wasn't just me, it was all the coaches - that we were going to put them in there, and they would be there the next four years."

On the field, they are the same kinds of players. They're both smart, sure-handed defenders, good baserunners, and tough outs at the plate.

Personality-wise, the similarities are striking.

"We're the same," Joey Paolini said. "We both like to talk. Sometimes, I can't hear him when he's talking because I'm talking."

Joey Paolini said the best thing about Papeika as a player is that "he's hard-nosed, and he's a grinder. Nothing bothers him. He just plays baseball."

Papeika said Paolini's strength as a player is that "he works baseball 24/7. He's so dedicated to the game."

Both athletes take pride in representing a Holy Cross team that regards itself as underrated at times.

"We're under the radar," Papeika said. "We like it that way."

Paolini plans to continue his career at East Stroudsburg (Pa.), an NCAA Division II program. Papeika plans to continue at Shenandoah, an NCAA Division III program in Winchester, Va.

They both take seriously their responsibility as senior leaders for a team with promising young players.

"We know we have to be role models," Papeika said.

They've never missed a game with an injury or an illness. They've been each other's North Star, the constant that's always there despite the change all around them.

Paolini and Papeika are on the verge of a remarkable milestone: They are about the play their 100th game together.

"That's something special," Joey Paolini said of playing his 100th game with Papeika. "That's not something that many people have the opportunity to do."

panastasia@phillynews.com

@PhilAnastasia

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