ITEM PHOTO: OWEN O’ROURKE
St. Mary’s pitcher Matt Costanza rounds second base during a Division 3 North tournament game against Boston English at Fraser Field on Friday.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — The St. Mary’s baseball team played well in all facets of the game on Friday, but it was the offense that took center stage as the Spartans blew out the Boston English Eagles, 14-1, in the first round of the Division 3 North tournament at Fraser Field.
“I liked the way we played today,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “We came out well on both sides of the ball and got them chasing us early, which was good. The guys went out there and did everything we said they needed to do. They were clean in the field, great on the mound and they battled at the plate.”
Tyler Donovan went 1-for-3 with a triple and three RBI to help pace the Spartans, while Donnie Weisse (2-for-4), Antonio Felix (2-for-3), Ryan Turenne (1-for-1) and Nick Peveri (2-for-3) each notched two RBI. Matt Costanza (2-for-3) and Mike Luciano (1-for-1) each had one RBI.
In addition to his solid day at the plate, Costanza picked up the win for St. Mary’s. Costanza gave up just one run on five hits with two strikeouts in five innings of work. Tommy Cash came on to close out the final two innings, giving up no runs on three hits with two strikeouts.
“Matt gave us exactly what we needed today,” Dana said. “He did his job and then Tommy came in to finish it off. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
The Spartans struck early and often in this one. After moving through a 1-2-3 top of the first, the Spartans came up to bat and loaded the bases for Peveri, who blooped a single to right field to bring in a run. Next up was Donovan, who laced a three-run triple in the right-field corner to clear the bases and give St. Mary’s a 4-0 lead.
After Costanza moved through another 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second, the Spartans picked up right where they left off with the bats. After a leadoff walk and stolen base by Dan Hennessey, Felix stepped in a knocked an RBI single into left field and advanced to second base on the throw home. Up next was Costanza, who helped his own cause with an RBI single to right field. After advancing to third on an errant pickoff throw, Costanza was driven home by a long sacrifice fly to right field from Turenne to make the score 7-0.
The Spartans did a great job knocking in their runners all game long, notching 13 hits as a team and only stranding four runners on the basepaths. They were also able to score at least one run in each of the six innings they batted.
“Sometimes you’d love to save those runs,” Dana said. “But we came out and hit well today, and now we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
With the win, St. Mary’s (16-5) will advance to play either No. 4 East Boston (14-4) or No. 13 Amesbury (12-7) in the Division 3 North quarterfinals at a date and time to be determined.
“To be honest, we’re just preparing ourselves to play as well as we possibly can right now,” Dana said. “That’s our only focus.”
