Magicians baseball team frustrates Bulldogs

LYNN – The game was there for English. The Bulldogs had already scored three times in the fifth to climb to within a run from tying up Marblehead, the bases were still loaded, and there was only one out.But that?s when Magicians pitcher Jason Chmara bore down.The right-hander with the baffling changeup and curve got the No. 3 hitter for English, Anthony De La Cruz, to watch strike three, and then induced cleanup hitter Josue Perez to ground out to third. Inning over. Marblehead still had a one-run lead and went on to win, 5-3, Monday afternoon at Fraser Field.?We needed this win,” said Magicians coach Jason Tarasuik, whose team moved to 4-5. “Hopefully, this turns things around for us a little and gets us going.”Chmara was sailing along with a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth. But after Perez struck out to lead off the inning, English nibbled Chmara to death.First, Mike Ausiello lined a single to center. Then, Jeam Castillo?s attempted sacrifice was so good the bunt turned into a base hit.Kelvin Aracena followed, and his flare to left-center fell among three fielders, loading the bases. Andrew Napoleon, who was on base three times, followed with a hard grounder that second baseman Ted York couldn?t handle, and a run scored to make it 4-1. Back-to-back singles by Kyle O?Connor and Lucas Harris drove home two more runs (O?Connor?s just eluded the outstretched glove of shortstop Tim Kalinowski, otherwise two would have come across on that single).De La Cruz had two strikes on him when Chmara threw a borderline pitch he didn?t get. And after coming back with the same pitch, De La Cruz didn?t bite, and he was rung up.?I think we might have fooled him a little,” said Tarasuik. “We?d just thrown him a curve, and he might have thought fastball. But we went with the same pitch.?He (Chmara) battled,” said Tarasuik. “He threw strikes and I think his off-speed stuff was a good way of handling their big hitters.”?We had the bases loaded and our No. 3 and 4 hitters up there,” said English?s Joe Caponigro. “You can?t ask for much more than that.”English?s pitching was taxed last week, so Caponigro went with Dan Rustani Monday and he did well until giving way to Brett Molea in the top of the fifth. Marblehead scored right away when Trey Blackmer led off with a double on which Napoleon almost made a shoestring catch. Brian Daly bunted him over to third, and Tom Koopman got the first of his two RBI on a grounder to short.In the second, Kalinowski walked and moved to second on Jake Marsden?s single. After they both moved up on a passed ball, Kalinowski came home on a wild pitch, and Marsden followed him on Harrison Engstrom?s sacrifice fly.Daly scored on a wild pitch in the fifth to make it 4-0, and then, after English?s three-run rally, Koopman knocked in his second run in the top of the fifth, scoring Daly, who had hit a two-run double.?I thought we battled,” said Caponigro, whose Bulldogs fell to 6-3. “We were down 4-0 at one point, and we fought back. And we had another inning (the fourth) where we hit the ball right on the screws and had nothing to show for it.”