Classical’s Gauthier no-hits Revere; Rams qualify for tourney

LYNN – The Lynn Classical baseball team is heading back to the postseason for the first time in six years and the Rams got there in grand style on Thursday.Kyle Gauthier needed only 76 pitches to no-hit Revere as the Rams rolled to an 8-0 win over the Patriots.”Kyle showed up to the park early and I could tell that he was all business,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski said. “He threw his fastball for strikes and he kept them off balance with the curve and the defense made some great plays behind him.”Gauthier flirted with a no-no earlier this season against Revere, losing the bid with two outs in the seventh. On Thursday, the junior wasn’t going to let the second chance get away.”I knew early on that I had the stuff I wanted,” Gauthier said. “I felt like I was pounding the zone and keeping them off balance.”The closest the Patriots (0-20) came to a hit was with two outs in the sixth when shortstop Wilfredo Feliz went deep in the hole to rob R.J. Tiorano.”That was a great play by Wilfredo,” Zukowski said. “And the big thing was that we had the hitting to go with the good defense finally.”Classical (10-7) gave Gauthier all the runs he needed in the bottom of the first.Gauthier, Feliz and Kyle Devin ripped off singles to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. Feliz stole home on a double steal to make it 2-0 before John Finnigan and Greg Rybak had RBI singles.Huebert Segura’s sacrifice fly plated Rybak to make it 5-0 after an inning.”We really set the tone in that first inning,” Zukowski said.Gauthier pitched around an error in the second by getting Justin Donati to line into an inning-ending double play.Classical added a run in the bottom of the second on Angel Tavares’ RBI single for a 6-0 lead.That was more than enough run support for Gauthier, who was on cruise control by this point. He struck out seven of his 11 hitters in the first four innings and did not issue a walk all day.Tavares’ second RBI in the fourth upped the lead to 7-0 and an outfield error in the sixth led to Classical’s final run.The only question was if Gauthier could finish the deal this time.He got Frank Colleran on a groundout and struck out John Papasodora. Fittingly, Paul Norton grounded back to Gauthier to complete the no-hitter.”I am so happy for the upperclassmen,” Zukowski said. “They have put in a lot of hard work that is finally beginning to pay off.”