PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick baseball team got back to .500 on the season in thrilling fashion Wednesday afternoon, walking it off in the seventh inning to pick up a 5-4 win over Archbishop Williams at Bishop Fenwick High School.
The winning run came on an RBI infield single from Nick Villano, who knocked the ball down the third base line with the bases loaded that just barely stayed fair.
“It was kind of a weird game for us — we came out and scored those four runs early and then really fell asleep offensively for the rest of the game,” said Fenwick coach Matt Antonelli. “But we stuck with it and were able to make the plays when we needed them, and Nick came up with the big hit when we needed it most.”
Wednesday’s win was just the latest in a string of great play for the Crusaders, who have won eight of their last 11 games after starting the year at 1-6.
“I think for us as first-year coaches, it took a little while for us to learn the players and for the players to learn us,” said Antonelli. “We knew that the talent was there and that the guys’ work ethic was there, so we figured we would hit a point in the season where we would be able to turn things around.”
Villano went 2-for-3 with a double and one RBI to lead the way, while Dan Reddick went 1-for-3 with a double and one RBI. Chris Faraca and Anthony Marino each went 1-for-3 with one RBI, while Andrew McKenzie went 0-for-2 with one RBI. Gianni Mercurio went 2-for-4 in the win.
Mike Geissler earned the win on the mound after pitching 3 2/3 innings of relief, allowing no runs on no hits with four walks and three strikeouts. Marino went the first 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on one hit with five walks and five strikeouts.
The Crusaders jumped ahead early with a four-run outburst in the top of the first. Mercurio led off with a single before a fielder’s choice and a walk put two runners on with one out. Faraca got the scoring started with an RBI single, then Marino followed that up with an RBI single of his own to make it 2-0. After McKenzie brought home another run with a sacrifice fly, Reddick rounded out the scoring for the inning with an RBI double to make it a 4-0 game.
Archbishop Williams responded with a run in the second inning, but it wasn’t until the fourth when the Bishops were able to climb back in it. Marino struggled with control issues on the mound for Fenwick, walking three batters in the fourth and allowing a run to come home on a wild pitch. Marino was then taken out of the game in favor of Geissler, who walked the first two batters he faced to bring home two runs and tie the game up at 4-4.
The score remained there until the bottom of the seventh, when Anthony Herbert drew a walk to start the Fenwick rally. Mercurio then singled before Costa Beechin was intentionally walked, which set up the bases-loaded situation for Villano.
Bishop Fenwick (9-9) is now off until Sunday (11), when it hosts Manchester-Essex in its regular season finale.
“The season is a sprint from start to finish, so it’s always nice to get the guys a little bit of rest when we can,” said Antonelli. “We’ve got some guys who have thrown a lot of innings this year and everyone on the team plays hard every single day, so a little bit of rest will do them good. Then we’ll come back, try to close the season with a win and see where we fall in terms of making the state tournament.”
