PEABODY — When you let your opponent hang around, sometimes it comes back to bite you. That was the theme of Saturday afternoon’s game between the Bishop Fenwick and Archbishop Williams baseball teams.
The Crusaders did all their damage in one inning and the Bishops chipped away from there, on their way to a 7-5 win to spoil Fenwick’s senior day.
“We kind of sat back,” Fenwick coach Russ Steeves said. “It was the last game of the year, senior day. We took our feet off the gas a little bit and let them hang around.”
The Crusaders rebounded Sunday, pounding out 14 hits in a 14-2 romp over Pentucket.
Tyler Thomson got the start on the mound for Fenwick and tossed the first four innings, allowing three earned runs. Out of the bullpen, Nik Pignone and Alex Gonzalez pitched the rest of game in relief.
The Crusaders struck first in the bottom of the second, pushing five runs across to grab an early lead. Fenwick loaded the bases with no outs for Angelo McCullough, who drew a walk to tally the first run of the game. Keegan O’Connor followed with a RBI single, extending Fenwick’s lead to 2-0. Trey Deloury kept the rally alive with a three-RBI triple to right field, stretching the lead to 5-0.
At that point it seemed as though Fenwick was ready to run away with a senior day win. Instead, Williams chipped away at its deficit and the Crusaders never recovered.
The Bishops sliced the Fenwick’s lead to 5-3 in the top of the fourth with a RBI groundout from Ryan Bellew and a two-RBI double from Brandon Sullivan. Pat Kelly laced a RBI single in the top of the fifth, making it a one-run game at 5-4.
Williams took the lead in the top of the sixth, when Sam Hamer roped a two-RBI single with the bases loaded to give the Bishops a 6-5 edge. Kelly, Williams’ designated hitter, added an insurance run in the top of the seventh with a solo home-run to right field.
Fenwick went down in order in the bottom of the seventh for the 7-5 final.
“They kept chipping away and they kept coming,” Steeves said. “It was timely hits and key spots.
“We were up 5-0 and we thought we had them,” Steeves added. “We didn’t close the door pitching wise and we didn’t really hit.
Fenwick closes the book on its regular season with a 12-8 record. The Crusaders will regroup and shake off the loss as they gear up for the Division 3 North state tournament. Tournament pairings will be announced Monday.
“We’ve been playing really well so I think we’ll be ready for the state tournament,” Steeves said. “Our pitching is ready. We scored 34 runs in our last four games. This game was just one of those days. They beat us.
“We’ll take a few days off to rest up,” Steeves added. “We’ll go Tuesday and we won’t stop until hopefully we win it all. We’ll go back to the fundamentals and run through everything. We’ll take a lot of ground balls, a lot of fly balls, make sure our bunt defenses are good. We’ll go over the basics to stay ready and keep things loose.”
St. John’s 6
St. Peter-Marian 3
A four-run rally in top of the fifth propelled the Eagles to victory in their regular season finale. Jake Sanderson earned the win on the mound, throwing three innings with five strikeouts. Alex Lane went 3-for-4 and scored two runs.
The Eagles close the regular season at 15-5.
