PEABODY — The St. Mary’s baseball team had to fight through a bit of adversity Wednesday, but in the end the Spartans made the plays when they needed to on both sides to come away with a 7-3 win over Catholic Central League rival Bishop Fenwick in eight innings at McHugh/Farley Athletic Complex. St. Mary’s let up three runs on one play in the fifth inning to allow Fenwick back in, but the Spartans recovered.
“I thought we played very well throughout the game, but then we had one play where we give up three runs on a base hit to left field,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana. “I thought we were a better team the whole way minus that one pitch, although I would like to see us come up with the big hit more often. We left double-digit runners on base again.”
Aiven Cabral (2-for-4) and John Mulready (1-for-4) each had 2-RBI doubles in the victory, while Colin Reddy went 2-for-5 with a run scored. DJ DiCenso (2-for-3), Austin Foglietta (1-for-5, run) and Conor Donohue (1-for-3, run) also had hits.
On the mound, Bobby Alcock earned the win after tossing 7 2/3 innings and allowing three runs on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts. It was a scary sight in the bottom of the eighth when Alcock took a line drive to the head off the bat of Trey Deloury, but he was able to walk off the field under his own power. Lee Pacheco came in to get the final out and earn the save.
“He wanted to stay in and finish, but that’s a clean shot to the head and we have to go with safety first there,” Dana said of Alcock. “He pitched well all day and just had that one hiccup in the field, then Lee came in and finished it off. It was a good performance.”
For Fenwick, Jake Murphy went 1-for-3 with two RBI. Scott Emerson (1-for-3, double, run), Harrison Brickett (1-for-3, run), Angelo McCullough (1-for-4), Keegan O’Connor (1-for-4) and Deloury (1-for-4) also had hits.
Christian Loescher, who’s making his return from an injury, got the start and pitched the first three innings for Fenwick, allowing one run on one hit with four walks. Murphy came on in relief and pitched two innings, allowing two runs on five hits with one walk. Cory Bright pitched the final three innings for the Crusaders and allowed four runs on three hits with two strikeouts.
The biggest issue on the day for Fenwick was fielding, as the Crusaders made five errors in the game.
“The errors hurt us out there,” said Fenwick coach Russ Steeves. “We’re already struggling with pitching, as our top four guys are hurt, so those errors really hurt us. I’m proud that we came back and tied it up against a very good team, but we have to play better defense.”
Neither team got on the scoreboard until the top of the third, when St. Mary’s loaded the bases and scored on a passed ball to go up 1-0. The Spartans added to their lead in the fourth, loading the bases with one out. This time, Mulready lined a 2-RBI double down the left-field line to make it 3-0.
The score remained there until the bottom of the fifth, when Fenwick made its run. The Crusaders started by getting runners to first and third after leading off with a double and a single. Murphy then stepped in and lined a 2-RBI single to bring the score to 3-2. When the throw from the outfield came home and Murphy went to take second base, Alcock tried to throw him out and his throw sailed into the outfield, which allowed Murphy to come all the way around to score and tie the game at 3-3.
Both teams settled down a bit from there, and eventually the game went to extra innings. Reddy singled to lead the inning and moved to second on a sac-bunt, then Mulready stepped in and put the ball in play with a grounder to third base. But what should’ve been a routine play actually wasn’t, as Fenwick’s third baseman threw the ball away and allowed Reddy to score the eventual game-winning run. Two batters later, the same exact sequence allowed another St. Mary’s run to score and make it 5-3, then Cabral stepped in and launched a 2-RBI double to round out the scoring.
Fenwick (6-6) is back in action Saturday against Cardinal Spellman (2) at Fraser Field.
St. Mary’s (8-2) will travel to Spellman on Friday (3:30).