Baseball: Fenwick’s Church no-hits St. Mary’s

The St. Mary’s boys baseball team ran into a buzzsaw Friday afternoon as Bishop Fenwick starter Kevin Church tossed a no-hitter and scored the games only run.”Kevin was unbelievable today,” said Fenwick coach Kevin Canty following the victory. “He had great command and mixed his pitches very well.”Church went all seven innings, striking out eight batters and walking four.While Church was handling the Spartans, St. Mary’s Chris Buckland almost matched him batter-for-batter.After throwing a one-hitter earlier this week against Bishop Fenwick, Buckland tossed a two-hitter Friday.”He didn’t have his absolute best stuff,” coach Derek Dana said, “but our defense played well behind him. We didn’t make any errors.”Fenwick scored its run in the first inning after a Church walk, a sacrifice bunt from Mike McKenzie, a groundout from Nick Bona on which St. Mary’s just missed nailing Church as he slid into third, and a looping base hit to left from Joe Lavasseur.Church, Dana said, “pitched well all day long. He had a good fastball and attacked both sides of the plate with it. He kept us off balance all day.””He’s a competitor,” Dana said. “He’s a good lefty who battles you. He throws strikes.”St. Mary’s is 5-6 overall, 4-5 in the Catholic Central League.Malden 6, Saugus 4Senior Danny Groark homered and knocked in two runs, and stole a base for the host Sachems. Starting pitcher Scott Enos pitched well enough to get his team the win, but three errors and eight walked batters helped Malden to victory.Swampscott 13, Revere 1In Revere, the Big Blue (8-5) looked real big in a rout of the Patriots, coming off a strong pitching effort from their starter and two relievers.Swampscott’s Trevor Massey turned in an effective start with four innings pitched, giving up one unearned run and one walk while striking out five batters. He also contributed well on the offense, going 3-for-4 with a RBI and two runs.Evan Rhodes and Chris Sullivan combined for three innings of shutout relief, combining to give up only one hit and two walks, while striking out four.Big contributors to the Big Blue’s offense also include DH Mike Walsh, who had two hits, including a two-run homer, and shortstop Gino Cresta, who also had two hits, scoring two runs, and driving in two RBI.English 2, Gloucester 1In Lynn, it was a tightly contested outing, with the Bulldogs (8-5) narrowly beating out the Fisherman thanks to a walk-off home run by first baseman Ben Bowden in the bottom of the seventh with two outs.Matt Burnham turned in a star outing for English, going the full seven innings, giving up only one run on five hits and two walks, striking out five Gloucester batters.Bowden would contribute to the Bulldogs’ other run, doubling in the first inning before coming in score on a single by teammate Drew Gentile. Gloucester would tie it up later in the game before Bowden’s seventh-inning heroics.English faces Salem today (4:30) at Fraser Field.