READING — The St. Mary’s baseball team just didn’t have it going on the offensive side of the ball Tuesday night, falling to Catholic Central League foe Austin Prep 10-0 in the CCL Cup Final.
The Spartans were only able to scatter two hits on the day, as they were stymied by the stellar pitching of Austin Prep’s Jack Iannibelli.
“We picked the wrong night to have a bad night, and I think this got our attention in a hurry,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “I’m really proud of the team for how they’ve fought all year, because we were 4-4 at one point and went 11-2 to close out the season. We’ve just got to learn to battle more at the plate. But we’ll take a day to regroup here, look at the (state tournament) seedings and go from there.”
The only two players to register a hit for the Spartans were Aiven Cabral (1-for-3, double) and Andrew Luciano (1-for-2).
On the mound, Eric Bridges got the start and took the loss for St. Mary’s after pitching 3 1/3 innings and allowing four runs on six hits with two strikeouts. John Nowicki (1 2/3 innings) and Terence Moynihan (2/3 inning) also saw time on the mound for the Spartans.
After both teams cruised through the first two innings with no damage, things got interesting in the third inning. It started when St. Mary’s got a runner into scoring position with one out thanks to a hit batter and a single, but Iannibelli notched a strikeout and a flyout to escape the inning.
The Cougars took that momentum into the bottom of the inning, leading off with three straight singles to load the bases with no outs. Two batters later, Josh Keith stepped in and knocked a two-run single up the middle to get Austin Prep on the board. The Cougars grabbed one more run in the inning on a heads-up baserunning play, and they held a 3-0 lead after three innings.
The Cougars added another run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI double from Will Burns, then Burns turned around in the bottom of the fifth and smashed a two-run triple. After Brenden Walsh added an RBI single of his own, Austin Prep led 7-0.
A two-run double from Jake Elbeery made it 9-0 in the bottom of the sixth, then an RBI sacrifice fly from Aidan Driscoll gave Austin Prep the win via the 10-run mercy rule.
St. Mary’s (15-6) now awaits its seeding in the upcoming Division 2 state tournament, where the Spartans are still the defending state champions after winning it all in 2019.
“This group of seniors lost their junior year and they’re giving it everything they have this year, but they never really got to experience that feeling of having everyone gunning for you as the team to beat last year,” said Dana. “It’s definitely a different dynamic this year because we have freshmen and sophomores who are stepping up and playing in key spots as well. But we’re feeling pretty good for the most part going into the tournament, we just need to clean up a few things and we’ll take it from there.”
