LYNN — In a battle between two of the top baseball teams in the entire state, the St. Mary’s Spartans couldn’t get anything going on the offensive side of the field in an 8-1 loss to Austin Prep in a Catholic Central League at Fraser Field Friday afternoon.
It was a tough day at the plate for the Spartans, who only scattered two hits and struck out 19 total times against Austin Prep pitching. Cougars ace Evan Blanco was dominant on the mound through six innings, striking out 16 batters.
“Blanco’s an excellent pitcher and we know that, but 19 strikeouts is a little much,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “But it’s not all on the hitting, because we walked a lot of guys on the mound as well and gave up eight runs. We put too much pressure on ourselves out in the field, and eventually we broke.”
The only two hits of the game for the Spartans came from Zach Fisher and Tad Giardina, with Fisher going 1-for-3 with a single and Giardina going 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI.
“Over the first two games of the season, we’ve been able to capitalize on several opportunities when we got them, but we’ve also left a bunch of runs out there,” said Dana. “We’ve got a lot of guys on this team who can play, and I want to say it’s early in the season, but eventually we’re going to need some guys to step up. And that’s both young and veteran guys.”
Friday’s game was actually a pitchers’ duel through the first three innings, with both Blanco and Nowicki keeping the board scoreless through the first two. But Nowicki was living dangerously, as he walked the bases loaded in the first inning and walked a couple more guys in the third. The walks started to bite the Spartans in the top of the third, when Jake Zawatsky got a free base and Matthew Chatelle ripped an RBI triple to right field — although it was nearly caught by Spartans’ right fielder Ryan Fraher on a diving attempt.
Then came the fourth inning, when Austin Prep was finally able to break the deadlock with a five-run outburst. After David VanderZouwen knocked an RBI double to make it 2-0, Josh Keith followed with an RBI double of his own to add another. A passed ball with the bases loaded brought home another run, then Chatelle stepped into the box and knocked the second of his three triples on the day to bring home two more runs and make it 6-0.
The Spartans were finally able to get themselves on the board in the bottom of the fourth, when Fisher singled and advanced to second on a passed ball and then Giardina ripped a long RBI double to left field to make it a 6-1 game.
But that was as close as things would get, as the Cougars added two more runs in the seventh inning and then Blanco and Zawatsky struck out four of the last eight Spartan batters of the game to seal the win.
St. Mary’s (2-1) travels to Arlington Catholic Monday afternoon (3:30).
“We know they’re playing well and they have a talented team,” Dana said of Arlington Catholic. “We split with them last year and I know they had a lot of guys coming back, so we know it’ll be another tough one. But our entire schedule is like that — we don’t get any nights off in the CCL.”
