Opportunistic Spartans best Beverly

BEVERLY – Desperately in need of a win, the St. Mary’s baseball team came to Beverly Tuesday hoping to avenge a 5-1 loss to the Panthers in the season opener.Well, thanks to a gutty performance from Ryan Beliveau on the hill and timely hitting, the Spartans exacted revenge with a 4-2 win.”Ryan was excellent,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “We got hits in situations and got the big hits.”The Spartans (4-3) did the job at the plate and on the mound but also in the field, playing a relatively clean game. Beverly, on the other hand, did not play clean.The Panthers (5-2) committed four errors, which directly resulted in three of the four St. Mary’s runs. The errors handed a tough loss to Matt Lanza, who pitched well in his first varsity start.”Matt pitched real well and he deserved a better fate,” Beverly coach Dave Wilbur said. “They played better defense than we did. St. Mary’s deserves the win.”The mistakes started early for Beverly with a misplay of Anthony Struppa’s grounder to start the game. But catcher Joe Wioncek gunned down Struppa trying to steal second.The game stayed scoreless until the bottom of the third, when Beverly broke on top. A two-out error by Yano Petruzzelli kept the inning alive for second baseman Andy Brown, who was a thorn in the Spartans’ side all game. Brown delivered a double to give Beverly the lead.That lead wouldn’t last long for the Panthers in the fourth. Petruzelli reached on an error to lead off the inning and motored to second on a passed ball.With one out, a misplayed Beliveau grounder put runners on the corners. Tade Ogunbona followed with a fly ball that was just deep enough to allow Petruzzelli to tag and score from third.Tom McPherson kept the inning alive with an infield single that allowed Beliveau to score when the throw to first was wild, making it 2-1, Spartans.Beliveau worked a perfect fourth before running into trouble in the fifth.A one out single and stolen base by Wioncek was followed by a Brown infield single with two outs. Connor Walsh then hit a shot up the middle that had base hit written all over it, but shortstop Joe Kasabuski ranged to his left to snare the liner and end the inning.St. Mary’s added to its lead ion the top of the sixth via a two-out rally. Nick Conti singled and moved to second on a walk. Ogunbona delivered him with a double that made it 3-1.In the sixth, the Panthers had an even better chance to get back in front. An error and singles from Paul Drinkwater and Cohen loaded the bases with one out. Beliveau then got Brian Skerry looking and blew a high fastball past Wioncek on a 3-2 count to end the inning.St. Mary’s tacked on another run in the seventh. Chris Kefalas’ leadoff double was followed by a sacrifice and a Struppa strikeout. Kasabuski bunted to first, allowing pinch runner Angel Rodriguez to scoot home.In the bottom of the inning, Brown and Walsh reached base before Chris Freni singled home Brown to make it 4-2 and end Beliveau’s day.McPherson came in from second and promptly struck out Jack Leathersich and got Drinkwater to pop out to Beliveau at second for the final out.