MALDEN — The No. 35 Lynn Classical baseball team fell short to the No. 30 Lancers of Malden Catholic, 4-2, on Thursday to end the Rams’ postseason quest. It was one for the taking, but key defensive plays from Malden Catholic – and untimely hitting – led to the Rams’ exit.
In the top of the third, Classical had its bases loaded with no outs, but failed to bring home any runs. First-year head coach Leon Elwell credited the Lancers’ defense for making the difference.
“We were just one hit away all day long,” he said. “In the first inning, the kid in center field makes a great catch. If he doesn’t catch that ball and with Rolky’s (Brea) speed, he’s at least standing at third base.”
MC coach David Valdez said he prepared his team to be ready for any situation – Thursday’s included.
“That’s been something we’ve been practicing. If we get in this situation, we know how to handle it. Not only the pitchers, but everybody else needs to know what to do,” Valdez said. “We put people on base – like a game situation – and do different types of scenarios.”
Ending the inning with no runs proved to be costly, as Malden Catholic got on the scoreboard in the third when a failed pick-off allowed David Ruane to swipe home and give the Lancers a 1-0 lead.
They added another run in the fourth (2-0), but the Rams got one in the fifth inning thanks to Almani Gerardo. He hit a ground rule double. Then, Mark Walsh forced a dropped third strike, allowing Gerardo to take third before crossing the plate on a passed ball to make it 2-1.
However, the Lancers added two more in the fifth to put the pressure on.
Trailing by three in the seventh and final inning, the Rams scored a run thanks to an RBI single from Christian Figueroa, but with bases loaded and two outs, they couldn’t find their equalizers.
“Figgy pitched well enough [and] we played good enough defense for the most part,” Elwell said. “Even in the last inning, we got the go-ahead run on first base with two outs. You can’t ask for anything more than that from this group.”
Despite Thursday’s result, Elwell said he was proud of his team, and that he learned a lot in his first season in charge .
“I’m really proud of them. They’ve come a long way. They worked really hard [and] they deserved better,” he said. “Today was an odd day. We didn’t get that hit. … It’s an adjustment on everybody’s part, but we won 10 games when people didn’t expect us to win five.”
A player who can hold his head high is Figueroa, who went the distance and finished with five strikeouts. Offensively, he went 2-for-3 with two singles, a walk, and an RBI.
“He’s pitched well enough to win every game that he’s pitched in this year,” Elwell said. “I think he had two hits tonight. He had that big at-bat in the last inning to keep it going. He’s one of our leaders. He’s got another year left and we’re expecting a lot of him next year – even more than we got out of him this year.”
Malden Catholic travels to No. 3 Westfield in hopes of keeping its tournament hopes alive (TBD).
“Westfield is a good team. They’ve won 17 games, but we don’t see that. We don’t see their record. We only see what we’ve got here in the field. We put 110 percent in and don’t care about the other teams,” Valdez said. “We only care about what we can do. We don’t care if they have a pitcher throwing 300 mph. We only care about ourselves and that’s why it’s been a successful year.”
