Fundamentally sound St. Mary’s wins

LYNN – Baseball is as multi-faceted a sport as any and the St. Mary’s baseball team, slowly but surely, is beginning to come together in each aspect of the game.View Photo GalleryOn Friday afternoon against Lowell Catholic, the Spartans received a rock-solid, complete game effort from Clay Yianacopolus backed by some stellar glove work, including his own. Offensively, the hosts mixed in timely hitting with small ball to provide their starter with a lead he’d never relinquish.The end result, a 5-1 victory at Fraser Field.”It was the cleanest game we have played so far,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “We’ve won some tight conference games but today was probably the best we have executed this season.”Things started and finished with Yianacopolus, who held the Crusaders to one run on seven scattered hits. The left-handed junior struck out six and walked two while maintaining a rapid pace throughout.”He went the distance and gave us a very good chance to win which we expect of him,” said Dana of the Spartans ace hurler.The hosts claimed a 2-0 lead in the third off of Lowell’s Kevin Caruallo.Eight-hitter Donnie Weisse reached after grounding to James Sullivan whose throw from second pulled Nick Ceruizzi off the bag at first. Ryan Boisselle (3 for 3, run, RBI) followed with a run-scoring double to the left-center gap before scoring on an ensuing RBI single from Alec Costanza.The following inning saw St. Mary’s (4-3) take advantage of Caruallo’s own costly mistake before stretch the lead to five. After getting Yianacopolus in a 0-2 hole to open the frame, the visiting righty plunked his counterpart on the back.The Spartans shifted its focus to small ball in the following at bats, which led to consecutive bunt singles from PJ Hatchel and Antonio Felix, both placed perfectly down the third base line.With the bases loaded, Weisse produced a sacrifice fly to center before an infield single to shortstop from Boisselle re-loaded the bases and knocked Caruallo from the game.Costanza greeted reliever Kyle Rafferty with a rip up the middle, scoring Hatchel before Matt Costanza plated Felix with a ground out to second. Both runs were charged to Caruallo (7 hits, 1 strikeout).”We work on playing small ball a lot and it was great to see the guys put some pressure on with it today,” said Dana. “We left some men on base (eight total) but we got the timely hitting we needed.”The victors wove in some magic with the gloves as well, getting a couple of fantastic plays from Yianacopolus who bounded from the mound to the third baseline before strong throws to first on more than one occasion.Lowell’s lone run came in the sixth on a Jessie Caisse groundout to second, scoring Brett Ianhazzo who reached on the front end of back-to-back singles with Ceruizzi. An ensuing single from Brandon Bursey, which deflected off the rubber, loaded the bases.Disaster was avoided in the following at bat when Hatchel make a leaping snare on a frozen rope from Andrew Fisher, ticketed for the right field corner.”Everything’s beginning to come along for us,” explained Dana. “The kids continue to work hard at improving and their determination is starting to pay off.”St. Mary’s hosts Cardinal Spellman on Monday evening.