MEDFIELD — The Bishop Fenwick baseball team ran into an offensive juggernaut in South champion Medfield Wednesday and just couldn’t match the firepower in a 13-5 loss on the road in the Division 3 state semifinals.
The Warriors hit three straight home runs in the first inning and added another in the second to power a 9-0 head start. The North champion Crusaders battled back but just couldn’t tally as many big hits down the stretch.
“That’s a good hitting team,” Fenwick Coach Russ Steeves said. “Right out of the gate we didn’t have a lot on them and they put four home runs on us. It’s tough to battle back from. We put a lot of guys out on the mound, and tried to slow them down a little bit. We had our chances, had some guys on base but that’s baseball. We got beat by a better team (Wednesday) on that given day.”
Despite the loss, Fenwick second baseman and lead-off hitter Alex Gonzalez shined in the state semifinal, going 4-for-5 at the plate and scoring a pair of runs. Scott Emerson laced a two-run double and Anthony Marino, Mike Faragi and Christian Loescher all knocked in a run.
Gonzalez also pitched the best chunk of the game on a tough night for the Crusaders pitching staff. Marino started the day and Brandon Bloom followed, but the pair struggled and gave up six runs in two innings. Emerson and Jack Vieira also had brief appearances before Gonzalez pitched the final three innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with a strikeout.
“Marino was fresh, Bloom was fresh,” Steeves said. “I felt really good about our pitching (Wednesday). I kind of knew (Medfield) was a good fastball hitting team and they just got out ahead of us really quick. A team we don’t know really well. We just couldn’t battle back.”
Gonzalez’s first hit and error gave Fenwick a pair of runners in scoring position in the top half of the first, but their struggles to knock in runs started early. The Crusaders left eight runners in scoring position.
The Warriors didn’t have that problem. A lead-off walk was followed by three straight homers from Jack Goodman, Sam Kornet and Ben Leonard, which put Medfield up 4-0.
The downward slope continued for Fenwick, which trailed by as much as 9-0 before the end of the third inning.
But a walk from Bloom and a single by Loescher got the Crusaders started in the fourth. From there, Marino added an RBI on a fielder’s choice and Emerson laced his two-run double to cut the deficit to 9-3.
Both teams traded runs the rest of the way, with Medfield clinging to its lead. Fenwick added one in the sixth on Faragi’s RBI single and Loescher plated Gianni Mercurio on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, but the comeback just wasn’t meant to be.
“We battled, put guys on the mound and started chipping away,” Steeves said. “We just couldn’t get it and ran out of innings. I’m proud of the team. We had COVID and football season went right up to the day we started. There were a lot of things to overcome.”
And through it all the Crusaders put on a Division 3 North sectional run to remember. No. 18 seed Fenwick won five games on its way to the North title, outscoring opponents 48-4.
“They should be proud of what they’ve done,” Steeves said. “I’m proud of the seniors. They have back-to-back North championships (2019, 2021). It’s a championship that’s only been won four times in the history of the school. They have two of them.”
