St. Mary’s wins opener

LYNN – The St. Mary’s baseball team opened its season on Monday afternoon at Fraser Field with a 7-6 victory over Catholic Central League-rival Bishop Fenwick.View Photo GalleryThe Spartans’ bullpen was unable to maintain a late three run lead before their resilient offense rallied to secure the win in the bottom of the sixth.Alec Costanza led off the frame with a single through the 5-6 hole before Chris Blake drew a full-count walk against Tommy Parsons. After a sacrifice bunt from Clay Yianacopolus and an intentional pass to Chris Donovan, the hosts grabbed the lead on an infield single to shortstop from Antonio Felix.An RBI groundout to second by Ryan Boisselle provided a huge insurance tallyThe Crusaders would cut the lead to one in their final chances against Matt Costanza, getting back-to-back doubles from James Traversy and Will Vigneron, with the latter scoring the former.Eric Razney flew out to right with runners on the corners to end the game.”The biggest thing today was that our guys found a way to win, making plays when they needed to,” explained St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “It wasn’t the cleanest game but it’s a league win and we will work on things going forward.”After falling behind 2-0 in the second inning, the Spartans knotted in the third on a two-out, two-run double from Chris Donovan, scoring Brian Nerich and Alec Costanza who reached via single and fielders’ choice respectively.A three-run fourth gave the hosts and Yianacopolus (5 innings, 3 hits, 6 walks) some breathing room for the time being.Brendan O’Neill reached on a throwing error from pitcher Rob Carillo before the righty yielded a single to nine-hitter Paul Halas before an RBI double to Nerich. A two-out double to left-center from Blake gave the Spartans a two-run cushion.”They responded to the situation,” said Dana of his squad’s ability to get on the scoreboard after falling behind early. “You have to be able to answer, especially at home because you have the hammer in the end.”The lead would hold up until the sixth when the Crusaders (0-2) tied the score off of reliever PJ Hatchel who recorded one out before being pulled in favor of Costanza, who came away with the win in his first varsity appearance.Fenwick got consecutive singles from Traversy and James Dellisola before both moved up on a double steal. The former came across on a groundout by Matt Townsend.Matt Renzulli would reach on an error by O’Neill at third before a bunt single by Eric Ranzey loaded the bases. John Oliviera would earn an RBI the hard way after being hit by a pitch, leading to the pitching change.A sacrifice fly from Nick Bona, scoring Renzulli, would be charged to Hatchel before Costanza got Mike Campatelli on a fly out to center.”I liked the way our team competed today,” said Fenwick coach Kevin Canty. “We were much better than in our opening loss to Danvers and battled hard against a good team.”The visitors scored twice in their second trip to the plate, the first on a sacrifice fly from Dellisola, which scored Carillo who singled to lead off the inning. Renzulli added an RBI single off of Yianacopolus who would settle down the rest of the way.”We came out swinging the bat pretty well today, but left to many men out there in the end,” lamented Canty whose team matched St. Mary’s with 10 stranded runners.