Muldoon, Witkowski lead MC baseball past St. John’s

DANVERS – One team was ranked No. 1 in Eastern Mass. before the season, the other was in possession of that top spot entering Tuesday’s game at the Brother Linus Athletic Complex. And it was the former team that came away on top.Malden Catholic got a standout pitching performance from Nate Witkowski – who held St. John’s to four hits – and a pair of hits from Matt Muldoon and the go-ahead hit in the fifth from Witkowski en route to a 4-0 win over the Eagles.”They got the big hits when they needed them,” St. John’s coach Pat Yanchus said.Witkowski was able to outduel St. John’s starter Pat Connaughton, who allowed only five hits and two earned runs in his six innings of work.The Prep (9-3) managed only the four hits against Witkowski and stranded seven men in the game, three of them in the bottom of the first when some shaky defense from the Lancers opened the door for St. John’s.Garrett Folger led off the bottom of the first with an infield single but was forced out at second when Mike Yastrzemski’s popup to third was dropped. Witkowski got Chris Carmain to line out to center and looked to be out of the inning when Pete Castoldi grounded to short.But Justin Sensabaugh’s throw across the diamond was dropped at first, allowing the inning to continue. Greg Donahue followed with a four-pitch walk before Witkowski escaped major trouble by getting Derek Dubois to fly out to Tony Serino in center.Following that inning, MC coach Steve Freker gathered his team together for a little powwow in front of the Lancer dugout.”We challenged the team to play better defense there and they were great for the rest of the game,” Freker said.Connaughton wasn’t having to sweat out a scary situation like Witkowski did during the opening innings as he held MC hitless through the first four frames. Witkowski also settled down nicely after the first, matching the zeroes put on the board by Connaughton for four innings.The pitcher’s duel was broken up in the fifth as the Lancers solved Connaughton.Matt Muldoon led off the inning with a double down the right-field line. Anthony Carbone followed with a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt that put the go-ahead run 90 feet from home with No. 9 batter Witkowski up.The Lancers pitcher helped himself in a huge way as he ripped a shot to the right-field fence for a triple and a 1-0 MC lead. A passed ball moments later allowed Witkowski to score for a 2-0 lead.”Pat really pitched well, but Witkowski got the biggest hit of the game,” Yanchus said.Now pitching with the lead, Witkowski just got stronger. He allowed only singles from Folger and Donahue in the fifth and sixth innings while his teammates put the game on ice.In the sixth, Dario Pizzano singled and came around to score on Muldoon’s base hit with two down for a 3-0 lead. The Lancers capped the scoring in the sixth when Serino was hit by a pitch with two down and scored on a dropped fly ball in right field.