St. Mary’s baseball defeats Pentucket

LYNN – The St. Mary’s baseball team continued swinging hot bats on Thursday at Fraser Field.Riding a 12-hit, nine-run attack and the solid pitching of starter Kurtis White, the Spartans cruised to a 9-2 win over Pentucket in a non-league battle.Click here for a photo gallery.”I like the timely hitting that we’re getting,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “Kurtis pitched great and he battled really well.”The Spartans (4-0) didn’t play perfectly, however, as they committed four errors. But thanks to stellar hurling from White, the errors proved not to be costly.”We have to clean up our defense,” Dana said. “If we had played clean, maybe it would have given Kurtis a chance to finish.”St. Mary’s pushed out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Alex Fiste reached on an infield single with two outs and then stole second. Centerfielder Nick Day followed with a triple to right-center.The Sachems clawed back to tie the game in the top of the second thanks to a John Modlish single, an error and a sacrifice fly from Zack Bruk.It stayed tied until the bottom of the third when the Spartan offense got to Pentucket starter Adam Newell in a big way.Ryan Barrows led off the inning with a walk and followed with a steal of second. White then singled before Fiste drove home Barrows for a 2-1 St. Mary’s lead.Day followed with another hit, plating White and Fiste to up the gap to 4-1. An error and a groundout moved Day to third before a passed ball allowed the lead to go to 5-1 after three.”We had some timely hits in that third inning,” Dana said. “Alex had a great day at the plate and Nicky came up with a couple of big RBIs.”White would have the Pentucket lineup back on its heels the rest of his outing as the Sachems managed only three hits from the third through the sixth innings. They would make things interesting in the top of the sixth when Modlish singled and raced home on Newell’s double to the fence in center to make it 5-2.The Spartans would respond in turn as No. 9 batter Jonathan Capano led off with a single and went to second on an errant pickoff throw. Barrows then bunted for a hit before White doubled to left, scoring Capano and Barrows for a 7-2 lead.Fiste then singled and saw White cross on a throwing error in left field. Fiste would later come around on Joe Kasper’s base hit to make it 9-2.