Baseball: Spartans use solid effort to reach tourney

St. Mary?s rebounded nicely from last week?s losses to Archbishop Williams and Cardinal Spellman with a pair of solid weekend wins at Fraser Field.First, the Spartans (7-5, 11-5) shut out Arlington Catholic Saturday evening, 7-0, qualifying for the State Tournament while denying the Cougars the outright Catholic Central Large title. Then, St. Mary?s edged a Triton team scrapping to qualify for the post-season in eight innings Sunday afternoon, 3-2.?These two games were excellent. We hit a couple of bumps against Williams and Spellman but we got back to pitching well, playing very good defense this weekend. We faced each team?s best, so it feels good,” said coach Derek Dana.Clay Yianacopolus pitched the complete-game shutout Saturday, striking out four while yielding five hits and two walks. The Spartans? defense was anchored by shortstop Antonio Felix, who turned a pair of double plays.St. Mary?s started fast as Chris Blake?s three-run double and P.J. Hatchouel?s RBI single gave Yianacopolus a 4-0 cushion after one inning. The Spartans tacked on an unearned run in the second, then completed the scoring in the fourth when Matt Costanza walked, swiped two bags and scored on a sacrifice fly; and Blake drove in John Gaeta with a base hit.The Spartans manufactured the game-winner with two outs in the bottom of the eighth against Triton. Gaeta walked, reached third on Brian Bouchard?s infield hit, and scored on a wild pitch.Triton jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first via three singles and a sacrifice fly against Costanza. However, he settled down to work six and a third innings, allowing eight hits while striking out five before being relieved by Felix (2-0), who picked up the win.St. Mary?s scored once in the bottom of the first when Don Weise singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch. The Spartans tied it in the second when Chris Donovan reached on an error and scored on Brent Lozzi?s single.Peabody 9, Xaverian 1At Peabody, the Tanners (13-4) improved to 3-0 against Catholic Conference competition. Ryan Collins? three-run double triggered a six-run fifth inning to break the game open. Kevin Lebel added an RBI double in support of complete-game winner David Apostolides.Everett 2, Marblehead 1At Everett Sunday, the Magicians (8-9) got an RBI single in the third inning by Garrett Keough, one of only three hits they could muster. The other two came from Tom Koopman (double) and Tim Kalinowski (who singled and also stole a base).Senior righthander Jordan Chmara took the loss, going six innings, giving up nine hits, striking out five, and walking one.Fenwick 6, Swampscott 0At Swampscott, Mike Campatelli hit a two-run homer and Rob Carrillo pitched a two-hit, 10-strikeout complete game for the Crusaders.In other news: Saturday?s Ipswich-Lynnfield game was postponed and will be played this afternoon in Lynnfield (4). In action on Sunday, Saugus lost to Hamilton-Wenham, 3-1.