SWAMPSCOTT — The Bishop Fenwick baseball team benefited from a combination of timely hitting and shutout relief pitching on Sunday afternoon, rallying from behind for a 5-4 win over Swampscott in a non-conference battle at Forest Ave. Park. The key inning for Fenwick was the top of the fifth, where the Crusaders notched three runs to jump ahead for good.
“Our hitting isn’t quite where we want it to be, but when we’re hitting the ball to right-center field then we’re doing something right,” said Fenwick coach Russ Steeves. “We were hitting a lot of balls to right-center (Sunday). Our approach was much better.”
Fenwick had a number of key offensive contributors in the win, with Gianni Mercurio (2-for-4, double), Christian Loescher (2-for-4), Chris Faraca (2-for-4) and Tucker Destino (2-for-3) each notching one RBI. Mike Faragi went 3-for-4 with two doubles in the win.
On the mound, Anthony Marino earned the win in relief after tossing 3 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit baseball.
“Anthony came up big for us and really shut them down in the final few innings,” said Steeves. “He was fresh and rested, and he came in to get the job done.”
Brendan Bloom went the first four innings for the no-decision, allowing four runs on five hits with two strikeouts.
On the Swampscott side, Alex Greenfield led the way after going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Connor Correnti went 2-for-4 with a double and one RBI, while Matthew McIntire went 1-for-3 with one RBI.
Joseph Ford took the loss on the mound in relief, allowing three runs on six hits in three innings of work. John Cuttle got the start and the no-decision for the Big Blue, going four innings and allowing two runs on six hits with five strikeouts.
“You hate being on the back end of a one-run game, but we battled the whole way,” said Swampscott coach Joe Caponigro. “We did a lot of good things out there, and hopefully we can take advantage of our opportunities and play some good baseball moving forward.”
The Crusaders got things going right away, striking in the top of the first inning. Scott Emerson got on base to lead off, and after a groundout moved him over to second base, Mercuiro stepped into the box and laced an RBI double to put Fenwick up 1-0.
The Crusaders added another run in the second inning, moving a runner to third base before scoring on a fielder’s choice.
Swampscott finally got on the board in the bottom of the third thanks to an RBI single from Correnti to make it 2-1, but the big inning for the Big Blue came in the bottom of the fourth.
McIntire tied things up at 2-2 with an RBI single up the middle, then Jason Bouffard singled to put runners on first and second. Two batters later, Greenfield stepped in and launched a deep two-run double to make it 4-2 Big Blue.
The lead didn’t last long.
In the top of the fifth, Fenwick got runners on first and second and then started hitting. Loescher and Faraca notched back-to-back RBI singles to tie the score back up at 4-4, then Destino put the Crusaders ahead 5-4 on an RBI double.
Marino took it from there, shutting down the Big Blue bats over their final three at-bats of the game.
Swampscott (2-3) now has several days off before getting back on the field Friday (4) against Saugus.
“Our pitching has been outstanding so far, but our ability to hit with guys on base is missing right now,” said Caponigro. “This is a good group of guys and they’re resilient, so we’ve just got to keep working and keep getting better.”
On the other hand, Fenwick (3-3) is right back in action Monday afternoon (4) against Matignon.
“We’ve played some pretty good, close games early in the year, so we’re just stressing that we’ve got to do the little things well out there,” said Steeves.
