Classical tops English in game of pitching prowess

LYNN – Wednesday’s Classical-English baseball game belonged to the pitchers, Matt Merritt for English and Raymondo Gomez and Joe Rose for Classical.The Rams won, 3-2, with all five runs unearned.Afterward, both coaches raved about the pitching. But for English coach Joe Caponigro, whose Bulldogs are still alive in their bid to make the MIAA tournament, this was a loss his team could ill afford. Now, the Bulldogs have to win this weekend’s Nipper Clancy Tournament to qualify, and they play defending Division 3 state champion North Reading in the first round.”We don’t hit well enough to spot a team three runs on plays we can’t make,” said Caponigro. “It’s been this way all year.”I can’t fault Matt,” he said. “All year long, the pitching’s been there. But we just can’t seem to string enough hits together to score runs. Merritt pitched a very good game (he only gave up six hits, but English made four errors behind him). He’s pitched well for us all year.”In the other dugout, naturally, Classical coach Mike Zukowski was happy despite his team’s miscues.”After the first inning, when we made some mental and some physical errors, I thought we played a good game,” Zukowski said.Classical cannot qualify for the tournament, but the win represented a sweep of the two games between the Rams and the Bulldogs.Zukowski was most pleased with Gomez.”He’s done this for us all year,” said Zukowski. “He’s given us five solid innings and given us a chance to win the ballgame. And Rose, for the second game in a row, comes in and gets a big save.”English got on the board first when Merritt led off with a single, stole second and took third on an error when Jack Meagher hit one back to the box. Ben Bowden popped to the catcher, but another error on a ball hit by Drew Gentile scored Merritt. Gomez got out of the jam and kept English off the board until the fifth.More funky fielding led to Classical’s two runs in the bottom of the first. Rose led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Brad Scuzzarella. After Kyle Devin flied to left, Mike Crisostomo reached on an error, with Rose stopping at third. He scored as part of a double steal, and Brandon Devin’s base hit scored Crisostomo.Classical got its third run in the third, and again, English errors played a part. The speedy Scuzzarella led off by beating out an infield hit to third (the throw was wild, but Scuzzarella would have beaten it out anyway, and he didn’t advance on the play). However, errors abounded from that point on. Kyle Devin singled to short left-center, and Scuzzarella never stopped running. The throw went over the third baseman’s head, allowing Scuzzarella to come home, and a subsequent wild throw allowed Devin to take his place on the bag.All this happened with none out, setting up Classical for a potential game-breaking inning. However, Merritt got out of the jam with a strikeout, a popup to short, and Andre Gaudet’s bullet that was hit right to Mike Ausiello at third.English crept closer in the top of the fifth. Drew Gentile walked and went to third on an errant pickoff attempt. Gomez came back to strike out the next two hitters, but Cam Haggerty’s single to right brought home Gentile with the game’s final run.Rose came on in the sixth to slam the door, giving up only a hit (with the runner erased on an attempted steal) and a walk.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].