LYNN – The St. Mary’s baseball team might call yesterday’s 5-2 victory over Bishop Fenwick clean and opportunistic.For Fenwick pitcher Anthony Pisani, on the other hand, the only words to describe his day were “hard luck.””I thought he pitched well,” said Russ Steeves, Fenwick’s first-year coach. “But we didn’t play well behind him. And we can’t seem to string enough hits together to make anything happen.”St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana’s views were similar with regards to Pisani.”He’s a good pitcher, and he throws hard,” said Dana, also in his first year as St. Mary’s coach. “We took advantage of some things, and we played a clean game in the field.”Both Pisani and St. Mary’s starter Craig Cole were sailed smoothly along for the first three innings. Pisani had St. Mary’s hitters befuddled with a hard fastball and a nasty curve that had the Spartans lunging.Cole, a transfer from Malden Catholic (and one of four former Saugus American Little League World Series players on the Spartans’ team), kept Fenwick’s hitters off-balance with an assortment of off-speed pitches.”This was his first start of the year,” Dana said. “And he threw pretty well.”The bubble burst for Pisani in the bottom of the fourth, but it wasn’t all his doing. However, he did hit leadoff hitter Nick Conti, setting the stage for all that followed. After Conti stole second, Yano Petruzzelli (another former Saugus American player) singled to short right, with Conti stopping at third. He scored on a passed ball, with Petruzzelli going to second.Tom McPherson followed with a walk, putting runners at first and second, and a couple of wild pitches/passed balls brought home Petruzzelli with the second run.McPherson came home on Tade Ogunbona’s sharp single to left. After Ogunbona stole second, he was erased at third on an attempted sacrifice by Ryan Beliveau.Cole helped his own cause out by hitting a flare to right, with Beliveau going all the way to third. He came home on a safety squeeze by Chris Kefalas to make it 4-0, with Cole going to second, and Anthony Struppa’s single brought home Cole with the fifth run.St. Mary’s almost broke the game open in the bottom of the fifth, loading the bases with none out. However, Pisani bore down to get the next three hitters to put out the fire without any further damage.Pisani was also pretty much the entire Fenwick offense for the day, too, stroking a two-run homer over the right-centerfield fence with two out in the top of the sixth to account for the Crusaders’ only runs.McPherson came on to close the game out after that. With two runners on and two out in the sixth, Pat Holleran scorched one right to Petruzzelli at third for the final out.Things could have been very dicey in the seventh when, with one out, Fenwick’s Tom Moules walked and pinch-hitter Kevin Pierce followed with a single. After Nick Guido grounded into a fielder’s choice, Rich Dulkis hit a bullet to first that Kefalas somehow managed to corral. He tagged the base for the final out.
