Salem coach Tgettis records 400th career win against former team Classical

It seemed fitting that Salem’s Jim Tgettis got his 400th career victory Monday at Fraser Field ? home of some of his greatest coaching triumphs.And it seemed even more fitting that the milestone came against the team he used to coach: Lynn Classical.”It kind of does,” said Tgettis, who was more interested in talking about his team’s accomplishment in beating the Rams, 8-4, than he was discussing his own achievement.”This was a big win for us,” he said. “To beat this team, on the road, that was great. I’d rather this be about them.”However, Tgettis was also quick to point out, “if there’s any extra kick to it, it’s because both Classical and English beat us at the end of the season to keep us out of the tournament. So Classical helped keep us from achieving this milestone last year. It was going to happen anyway.”Classical coach Mike Zukowski has played for, and coached against, Tgettis during his career and both understood and appreciated the significance of the feat.”I went up to him after the game, shook his hand, and said congratulations,” Zukowski said. “He’s a great teacher of the game ? a great teacher of fundamentals. You have to know what you’re doing out there, and he sure does. He’s doing a great job.”As for the game, “Six of their runs were unearned,” said Zukowski. “We had two big errors on our part. They took advantage of our mistakes, capitalized on them, and beat us. Plain and simple.”That’s true, Tgettis said, “but we had some timely hits, and some timely fielding. Our kids deserved the win. We played very well.”For Classical, John Finnigan was 2-for-4 with an RBI and Kyle Gauthier was 1-for-4 with two RBI.Jorge Perez went 5 2/3 innings, giving up six runs, two of them earned.Senior lefthander Chris Boucher went six innings for Salem, striking out six, walking four, and allowing only one earned run. He also had a two-run triple in a four-run sixth inning.Also standing out for Salem were catcher Teaghan Malionek, who had two doubles and an RBI: and Adam Maggiacomo, with a double and two RBI.”Boucher pitched well,” Tgettis said. “And he was tough when he had to be. He did a really nice job hitting the corners and keeping the ball down. He made some mistakes, but we made some plays when we needed to.”Tgettis coached St. Mary’s to back-to-back state championships in 1987 and 1988; and won several Northeastern Conference titles while coaching Classical.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].