PHOTO: BOB ROCHE
Classical’s Andrew Moccia, left, tries to tag out St. Mary’s Dan Hennessey in a game at Fraser Field on Friday night.
By GORDON VINCENT
LYNN – St. Mary’s starting pitcher Kordell Henriquez courageously pitched out of trouble for most of the game and his team scored the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Spartans defeated Lynn Classical, 3-2, in a first-round game in the 35th annual Nipper Clancy Tournament on Friday night at Fraser Field.
Henriquez didn’t allow an earned run over six innings, despite giving up eight hits and a pair of walks. Matt Costanza pitched a scoreless seventh inning for a save.
“Kordell made pitches and got outs when he had to,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “And we made a couple of nice plays on defense to help him out.”
St. Mary’s (14-7) plays North Reading in the championship game today (3), while the Rams (9-10) need to win the consolation game against English at noon to qualify for the state tournament.
The game was tied, 2-2, in the bottom of the sixth when Tyler Donovan drew a 1-out walk of Classical’s Tyler Way. After Costanza flied out the centerfield, Jack Ward hit a towering fly ball to the gap in left center. Rams’ leftfielder David Barnard got under it, but lost his footing at the last second and the ball bounced off his glove for a two-base error that allowed Donovan to score what proved to be the winning run.
“He (Barnard) did the hard part, he just didn’t put it away,” said Classical coach Mike Zukowski, of his freshman. “He’s playing because he’s earned his spot. And he’ll be right back in there tomorrow.”
The Rams got the tying run on base in the top of the seventh with one out when Brandon Devin singled for his fourth hit of the night, but Classical stranded its ninth runner of the game.
“We had our chances, but we couldn’t come up with timely hits,” Zukowski said.
Classical broke on top with a run in the top of the first inning. Way led off with a walk and one out later Devin lined a single to right field. The ball skipped under Cody Murtagh‘s glove, allowing Way, who was running on the pitch, to score and Devin to advance to third. Henriquez stranded the runner, though, when he struck out Andre Gaudet looking and then induced a groundout to second base from Herbie Newton.
The Spartans got the run back in the bottom of the first. Donnie Weisse led off with a double just inside the third base line, went to second on a groundout and scored on a single to center by Ryan Turenne. St. Mary’s loaded the bases later in the inning, but Way got Jack Ward to swing and miss at a high pitch on a 3-2 count to end the inning.
The Rams scored another run in the third inning. Devin singled to center and went to third on a single to right by Gaudet. With Newton batting, Gaudet broke for second. Turenne threw to third to try to pickoff Devin, but his low throw hit the runner in the back and caromed to shallow left field, allowing Devin to score.
The Spartans tied the game again in the bottom of the fourth. Costanza led off the inning with a double to the gap in left center, went to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Ward and scored on high chopper to third by Murtagh.
Classical had runners on first and third with two outs in the fifth, and first and second with no outs in the sixth, but couldn’t score in either inning. Henriquez fanned Gaudet and induced a flyout to center from Newton to end the fifth. In the sixth, Danny Rose tried to drop down a bunt to advance the runners, but St. Mary’s first baseman Dan Hennessey made an aggressive throw to third to nail the lead runner. Henriquez struck out Andrew Moccia and got Way to fly out to center.
St. Mary’s shortstop Antonio Felix came up with the defensive gem of the game when he threw out Matthew Laurie on a ground ball up the middle to lead off the seventh.