LOWELL — After a tournament full of magical moments, the magic seemed to run out for the Bishop Fenwick baseball team Wednesday. The Crusaders fell behind early and couldn’t recover, falling to Medway 5-1 in the Division 3 state semifinal at Alumni Field. Fenwick was only able to muster four hits in the loss.
“We were just a little light with the bats today, and we ran out of innings,” said Fenwick coach Russ Steeves. “We’ve been behind in every game so far in the tournament and come back to win, but we just couldn’t come up with the big hits.”
Cory Bright went 1-for-3 with one RBI to lead the offense for Fenwick, while Angelo McCullough (1-for-3), Trey Deloury (1-for-3) and Richie Pignone (1-for-2) also had hits.
“It really was just good pitching against good hitting, and they were better than us,” said Steeves. “We hit some balls right at guys early, then their pitchers settled down and did a good job.”
The loss on the mound fell to Christian Loescher, who struggled early and allowed three runs on three hits with one strikeout in two innings of work. Deloury pitched the final five innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts.
“Christian struggled early on, then Trey came in and really shut the door to keep us in the game,” said Steeves. “Both guys pitched hard, but Medway was able to jump on Christian a bit in that first inning and that set us back.”
Things went south early on, with Medway pushing across three runs in the top of the first. An infield hit, a sacrifice bunt, a groundout and a walk put men on first and third base with two out, then Trent Flood came through with a RBI double to put the Mustangs ahead 1-0. Next up was Justin Pratt, who knocked a 2-RBI single to take a 3-0 lead.
That was all Medway needed. Pratt was dominant on the mound for five innings, giving up one run on four hits with two strikeouts. Fenwick had a runner in scoring position in the first, fourth and seventh innings, but the Crusaders could only come through with one run on a RBI double from Bright in the bottom of the fourth.
Medway responded with two more runs in the seventh inning, getting a 2-RBI single from Matt Peterson to stretch the lead to 5-1. Eli Joyce-Vorce came in to pitch the final two innings for the Mustangs, not allowing a hit to close out the game.
While the season didn’t end the way the Crusaders wanted, Steeves knows that the team will eventually be able to look back on this season in a positive light. This year’s team is only the third Fenwick baseball team to ever win the Division 3 North title, and the first since 2004.
“Obviously it’s tough for everyone right now, but I told the guys to be proud of what they’ve accomplished this year,” said Steeves.
As for the group of six seniors — Bright, Deloury, McCullough, Keegan O’Connor, Harrison Brickett and Ethan Belt — Steeves knows that their impact on the program will be hard to replace.
“Those guys have been like coaches on the field for us this year, and you can’t put a value on that kind of leadership,” said Steeves. “We’re going to miss every one of those guys.”
Fenwick finishes the season 18-7.