PEABODY — The Bishop Fenwick baseball team may have trailed for nearly the entire game Friday afternoon, but the No. 22 Crusaders came through when it counted in a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over No. 43 Belchertown in the preliminary round of the Division 3 state tournament.
The game-breaking hit came from Gianni Mercurio, who smashed a two-run double in the bottom of the sixth to put Fenwick ahead for good.
“In playoff baseball you never know what’s going to happen, and our guys just kept pushing and pushing and eventually came up with that big hit,” said Fenwick coach Matt Antonelli. “We were playing pretty well for the entire game and had some opportunities, but we couldn’t really cash in until that sixth inning. Give a lot of credit to Belchertown — they played a great game on both sides of the field and really took it to us.”
Mercurio went 1-for-4 with a double and two RBI in the victory, while Nick Villano went 1-for-2 with a double and one RBI. Costa Beechin and Anthony Marino each went 1-for-3 with one run scored, while Andrew McKenzie (1-for-2) also added a hit.
But the Crusaders’ pitching was solid all game long, with Mike Geissler coming on to get the win in relief. Geissler went three innings and allowed one run on one hit with five strikeouts, while Mike Williams got the start and went four innings — allowing two runs on six hits with four strikeouts.
“Our pitching is really what kept us in the game out there,” said Antonelli. “Belchertown put some bats on the ball early, but Williams really stepped up after that and settled things down. Then with Geissler pitching as well as he did over the final few innings, that’s really what sealed it for us.”
The Orioles got the scoring started in the top of the first inning, as back-to-back one-out singles set the stage for Cam Bacon to smash an RBI double and make it a 1-0 game.
But Williams worked his way out of the gym from there, and Fenwick remained just one run behind until the bottom of the third inning.
After Beechin was hit by a pitch with one out, Villano stepped into the box and ripped an RBI double deep into the left-center field gap to knot the score at 1-1.
Belchertown was able to respond right away in the top of the fourth, however, as Bacon led off the inning with a single and was later knocked home on an RBI sacrifice fly from Chris Misiaszek.
The score held at 2-1 until the bottom of the sixth. Anthony Marino led off with an infield single and Dan Reddick was hit by a pitch two batters later. After a double steal put runners on second and third with one out, Bryce Leaman hit a slow grounder that the Belchertown third baseman couldn’t handle and the tying run came home. Two batters later, Mercurio ripped the go-ahead two-run double over the left fielder’s head to make it a 4-2 ballgame.
Belchertown made things interesting in the top of the seventh by pushing across a run thanks to an error, but Geissler was able to settle things down and strike out the final two batters of the game to give Fenwick the victory.
Bishop Fenwick (10-11) now moves on to the Div. 3 Round of 32, where the Crusaders will go on the road to take on No. 11 Dighton Rehoboth at a date and time to be determined.
“I think now that we’ve made it through that first playoff game, especially winning the way we did, the guys will have a lot more confidence and be more comfortable coming into this next one,” said Antonelli. “And I think because of that, you’re going to see us play some much better baseball.”
