HOPKINTON — Things weren’t looking great early on in the game for the St. Mary’s baseball team, but the Spartans buckled down and came through with clutch plays on both sides of the field to take home their second consecutive Division 2 state championship with a 5-2 win over Hopkinton Thursday afternoon.
With the win, St. Mary’s High School has now had at least one team win a state championship in each of the last 14 years.
“We really had a great team coming back in 2020, but this group of seniors along with Aiven (Cabral), they were there in 2019 and they saw that the state tournament is something special,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana, who played on the last St. Mary’s baseball team to win two straight titles in 1987 and 1988. “And if you lose your focus for one minute and let one mistake turn into two mistakes, you can find yourself out of the tournament. This group never let one mistake turn into two mistakes, and they kept their focus the whole way.”
Aiven Cabral battled back from a slow start in this one, going 6 1/3 innings and allowing two runs on five hits with nine strikeouts. After allowing two runs on three hits in the first inning, Cabral only allowed two hits the rest of the way and never allowed a runner past second base. John Nowicki came in to pitch the final two outs and earn his second save of the season.
“This was his best performance stuff-wise, but mentality-wise he was unbelievable (Thursday),” Dana said of Cabral. “That first inning could have been a lot worse than it was, but he refused to let it happen.”
“I was a little off, but I just felt like I had to get through it and keep us in the game,” said Cabral, who was a freshman on the 2019 team. “I just tried to mix it up and keep (Hopkinton) off balance and grind it out as long as I could.”
On the offensive side, the Spartans did what they’ve done all year — manufacture runs. With only four hits in the entire game, St. Mary’s scored two runs on a heads-up baserunning play in the fourth inning, another run on a bases-loaded walk and yet another run on a sacrifice fly.
The Spartans struck first in the opening frame, staying patient and drawing two walks with an infield single to load the bases. Colby Magliozzi (0-for-3, RBI) then drew an RBI walk to put the Spartans ahead 1-0, but Hopkinton starter Vinny Purpura struck out the next two batters to keep it a one-run game.
Then, the Hillers struck back.
In what was maybe the toughest opening inning of the year for Cabral, Hopkinton notched a walk and a ground-rule double before Dylan Locke stepped in and laced a two-run single to put Hopkinton ahead 2-1. The Hillers then moved runners to second and third with no outs, but Cabral settled down and retired the next three batters in order to limit the damage.
The score stayed there until the top of the third inning. After Cabral (1-for-1, two runs scored) led off with a single and Terence Moynihan (2-for-4, RBI) reached on an error, a deep flyout allowed Cabral to tag up and get to third base. Next up was Zac Fisher, who knocked a deep sacrifice fly to score Cabral and tie the game at 2-2.
Cabral moved quickly through the Hopkinton order in the bottom of the third, then St. Mary’s took the lead for good in the top of the fourth. It started with a hustle double from Tad Giardina (1-for-3) to get a runner in scoring position. A pair of strikeouts and a pair of walks later, the Spartans had the bases loaded with two outs.
Then came the play of the day.
A passed ball brought home Giardina, then an errant throw by the catcher back toward home allowed Dante D’Ambrosio (0-for-1, three walks, two runs scored) to come around and score from second base.
“Dante never hesitated on that play,” said Dana. “He came flying around third and didn’t take a stutter step or anything. We work on baserunning a lot in practice, and that was a big run for us in the game.”
Cabral was then intentionally walked, and Moynihan made the Hillers pay with an RBI single to make it a 5-2 St. Mary’s lead.
Cabral took over from there, not allowing a runner past second base the rest of the way. After he hit his pitch limit in the bottom of the seventh, Nowicki came on in relief and forced a flyout and a popout to seal the title victory.
The Spartans finish the season at 20-6 after winning 14 of their final 15 games.
