LYNN — The last time the St. Mary’s baseball team was on the field — an astounding 682 days ago — the Spartans were hoisting the Division 2 state championship trophy. On Thursday afternoon, the Spartans were celebrating again after notching a 9-0 win over rival Bishop Fenwick in a Catholic Central League bout at Fraser Field.
“We really just wanted to get started again, and it was a great day to get it going,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “The guys were excited, they came out and played well and they were ready to go.”
Junior pitcher Aiven Cabral was the star of the day for the Spartans, allowing only two hits in six innings of work while walking none and striking out 10.
“Aiven picked up right where he left off his freshman year, except now he’s two years older and stronger,” said Dana. “He’s a kid who just works at it relentlessly, and he’s a baseball player through and through. His hard work is really paying off.”
Tommy Falasca came in to pitch the final inning, allowing no runs on one hit with one walk.
Cabral also contributed to the win on the offensive end, going 2-for-3 with two RBI. Deniel Ortiz (0-for-4) also had two RBI in the win, while Colby Magliozzi (2-for-2) and John Nowicki (0-for-2) each had one RBI.
But the Spartans also took advantage of their opportunities to score without hits, employing heady baserunning to take extra bases and push across a few extra runs.
“The guys were where they were supposed to be and they hustled all game long,” said Dana. “We work on things like sacrifice flies and taking extra bases in practice, so to see us capitalize like that in the first game is a positive.”
For Fenwick, the problem was pitching and poor defense. The Crusaders hit five batters and walked five more in the loss, and errors across the board turned into seven unearned runs.
“I guess you’ve just got to chalk it up to not having been out on the field in two years,” said Fenwick coach Russell Steeves. “There’s no excuse for all the hit batters and the walks, we just have to pitch better. You’re not going to win many games when you give up seven unearned runs.”
The Spartans didn’t waste any time in this one, jumping ahead with three runs in the bottom of the first thanks to a RBI single from Cabral, a RBI sacrifice fly from Ortiz and a RBI walk from Nowicki. That lead was extended to 7-0 in the second inning, with Ortiz knocking in his second run of the game and St. Mary’s scoring three runs via baserunning. A RBI single from Magliozzi in the bottom of the third and a RBI single from Cabral in the bottom of the fifth rounded out the scoring for the Spartans.
Fenwick (0-1) hosts Matignon Saturday (12) for its home opener.
“We’ve just got to move on from this one and find a way to pitch better,” said Steeves. “Only two of our kids have seen a varsity pitch in the past two years, so we’re going to try to build on this and be better Saturday.”
St. Mary’s (1-0) is right back at Fraser for a home game against Archbishop Williams Saturday (12).
“We’re just going to go out and discuss how we can get better each and every day,” said Dana. “It’s going to be a different season with not a lot of days off and dealing with pitch counts and things like that, but we just want to focus on improving ourselves every day.”
