Captains drive Spartan baseball team into semis

LYNN – Through the middle innings of Tuesday’s 4-2 Div. 3 North quarterfinal win against Weston, it seemed St. Mary’s might not solve the Wildcats’ junior right-hander, Brooks Parker, who had allowed but two hits and retired 10 straight Spartans from the second through fifth innings.That changed in the bottom of the sixth. After senior Justin O’Blenes beat out a grass-hugging roller to shortstop to open the inning, senior captain Victor Molle lashed a triple to the gap in right-center, delivering O’Blenes to break a 2-2 tie. Senior captain Scott Betts then smoked a one-out double down the left field line, scoring Molle with an insurance tally.Senior captain and pitcher Brendan Deleire applied the finishing touches without incident in the seventh inning, capping a six-hit, five-strikeout complete-game win in which he walked only two.The No. 6 Spartans (16-6) now face No. 2 Catholic Conference foe Bishop Fenwick (18-6), which rallied for a 5-4 walk-off win against Stoneham yesterday, in tonight’s second semifinal game at Fraser (7 p.m.).”Their kid was very effective. He didn’t fool around, he threw strikes and he worked both sides of the plate very well,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana of Parker.”I couldn’t be happier for Victor. He’s come so far and worked very hard. He’s an excellent leader and he came up big in a big situation and played a heckuva game at shortstop. Then Scotty backed him up with the second run,” said Dana, who then praised Deleire’s determined performance.”He’s just such a competitor. He’s gotten better and better all year and he gives us a shot to win every time out,” he said.The Spartans picked up an unearned run in the bottom of the first. Chris Butler walked and O’Blenes’ sacrifice bunt turned into a hit when he avoided the tag of the pitcher Parker, then beat the throw to first. Molle’s fielder’s choice left runners at the corners with one out and Butler scored when catcher Colton Whorf’s pickoff throw sailed into left field.In the second, Clay Yianacopolus reached on an error with one out, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on DH Bryan Nerich’s single to right to make it 2-0.The Wildcats scratched back to tie it in the third with a rally triggered by the bottom of the order as Kevin Eappen and Ryan Welby, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters, opened the inning with singles. Jack Denehy’s one-out single to right chased home Eappen, and Welby scored the tying run on a two-out balk. Deleire stranded ‘Cats on the corners when Blake Asis bounced out to third baseman Alec Costanza to end the inning.St. Mary’s dropped both regular-season games to Bishop Fenwick by a single run, 8-7 and 2-1.”We’re happy to still be playing and it doesn’t matter who it’s against. And we love playing at Fraser Field,” Dana said.Weston, a Sullivan Rule qualifier out of the Dual County League and the sectional’s lowest seed, finished 10-13.