St. Mary’s baseball bows to Newburyport in D3 North final

LOWELL – Playing in its first North final since 1988, the St. Mary’s baseball team more than held its own at LeLacheur Park on Saturday. In fact, on another day, the Spartans’ performance might have been good enough to win the Division 3 North crown.On this rain-soaked Saturday, however, the Spartans were bested by a team playing with a purpose.Newburyport broke a scoreless tie on pitcher Brett Fontaine’s two-out, 2-run single in the bottom of the fourth and then added another run on an error to take an eventual 3-1 win and the program’s first sectional title since 1996.Click here for a photo gallery.”St. Mary’s was everything we expected and I hope that we were everything they expected,” said veteran Clipper coach Bill Pettengill.Pettengill is set to retire when the year ends and his team looked like a squad bound and determined to send one of the winningest coaches in state history off in the most memorable of fashions.Fontaine, who picked up his 10th win of the season on Saturday, was simply brilliant in holding St. Mary’s to only three hits to outduel Spartan starter Matt Turmenne.”Newburyport went out and got it (Saturday),” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “(Fontaine) backed us up a bit and kept us off balance and we didn’t get the bat on the ball like we’ve been doing.”As it turned out, Newburyport (21-5) needed Fontaine’s best efforts because Turmenne was his equal on Saturday. The junior held the Clippers without a baserunner until the fourth and finished his outing allowing only three hits.”Matty certainly deserved a better fate than he got (Saturday),” Dana said. “He kept battling and got out of some tough spots. He did his job really well.”There was plenty of leather being thrown around behind Fontaine and Turmenne as Spartan left fielder Zach Paone made two spectacular diving catches and Clipper centerfielder David Cusack robbed Turmenne of a certain double with a full layout to begin the second.Neither team could get anything going until Colby Morris drew a one-out walk from Turmenne in the fourth.Ryan O’Connor followed with an infield hit. Turmenne struck out Matt Mottola for the inning’s second out but saw a passed ball move the runners up 90 feet with Fontaine up.The junior then delivered a sharp single to center that barely eluded a diving Jonathan Capano, scoring both runners for a 2-0 lead. Fontaine then stole second and came home when Jim Conway’s grounder to short was thrown away.Fontaine was brutally efficient on the mound as well, mixing his locations to near perfection as St. Mary’s (16-8) managed only one hit through the first five innings.”That’s the type of pitcher Brett is,” Pettengill said. “He doesn’t strike a lot of people out but we play really good defense behind him.”Down to their last six outs, the Spartans needed a boost and Ryan Barrows gave it to them with a bunt single to lead off the sixth. He then went to second on a wild pitch, giving Spartan fans a little life.Fontaine, though, would go about snuffing out that fire as he got two flyouts before Nick Day singled home Barrows. A Turmenne fielder’s choice would end the inning and when Fontaine cruised through the seventh on six pitches, the Clippers had their sectional title.