LYNN — Anthony Nikolakakis has provided consistency at the plate for the St. Mary’s baseball team all season long. Friday afternoon against Salem, Nikolakakis provided consistency and heroics.
Nikolakakis, St. Mary’s third baseman and No. 3 hitter, delivered a game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning to lead the Spartans to a 4-3 win over Salem at Fraser Field. He finished 4-for-5 with four singles and one RBI.
“Anthony has been the most consistent offensive player the whole year,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “He’s given us big hits all year. That was an outstanding job by him and he did it with two strikes too.”
A pair of Spartans errors allowed the Witches to grab the early lead in the top of the first inning. Tommy Beauregard (3-for-4, RBI) singled from the leadoff spot to start Salem’s rally. After a flyout, Beauregard stole second and scored on a St. Mary’s infield error. Matthew Silva, who reached on the first error, scored on the second Spartans miscue, pushing Salem to a 2-0 edge.
“We wanted to make them make plays,” Salem coach Gavin Softic said, “hit the ball down and hard and see what happens. We hit some balls right at them but sometimes we can take advantage of a few errors here and there.”
That’s where it stayed until St. Mary’s slimmed the deficit in half in the bottom of the second. Lee Pacheco led the frame with a single and swiped second. Josh Mateo (2-for-4, three RBI) brought Pacheco home with a RBI single, putting the Spartans on the board.
It became a pitcher’s duel from there. Beauregard surrendered back to back two-out singles to Nikolakakis and John Mulready in the bottom of the third, but induced a pop fly to escape the jam. Beauregard tossed six innings and allowed three earned runs.
“Tommy was pounding the zone,” Softic said. “He had control of his offspeed and everything was down in the zone. That kind of kept St. Mary’s off balance a little bit. The balls they did hit were on the ground. We were able to make plays behind him.”
On the other side, Spartans starter Jared Coppola settled down nicely after the first inning. Coppola, making his first start of the season on the mound, threw six-plus innings, allowed five hits and no earned runs. Pacheco pitched three scoreless innings in relief.
“Jared was outstanding in his first start,” Dana said. “If we cleaned it up, we might’ve gotten it done in seven innings. Lee came in, shut the door. He just keeps giving us a chance to win.”
St. Mary’s claimed its first lead of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Nikolakakis singled to lead the inning. Pinch-runner Richie Pagliuca advanced to second on Mulready’s sac-bunt. Pacheco reached on an infield single, placing runners on first and third. After Pacheco stole second, Mateo roped a two-RBI single to give St. Mary’s a 3-2 lead.
“We don’t want to wait, we want to execute a little bit better,” Dana said. “It’s nice that we came from behind but I like to play from ahead and get teams chasing us. They stayed with it and ultimately they finished it.”
Beauregard’s RBI single in the seventh scored Randy Luna with the game-tying run at 3-3, sending the game to extras.
“When you’re playing a one-run game that puts extra pressure on the defense and those at-bats mean a little bit more,” Softic said. “To get that one run in the seventh shows the grind in our kids.”
The eighth went scoreless, setting the stage for Nikolakakis’ heroics in the ninth. Kyle Ouellette led the ninth with a single and moved to second on Colin Reddy’s sac-bunt. Aedan Leydon’s ground out pushed Ouellette to third. With two strikes, Nikolakakis plated Ouellette with the game-winning RBI single for the 4-3 win.
St. Mary’s (9-4) hosts Masconomet Sunday evening (5:30). Salem (7-5) hosts Somerville Tuesday at Salem State.