AUBURN – The eyes on the Sacopee Valley bench started rolling one batter into the game. Andrew Stacey, the team’s starting shortstop, fanned on a Justin Fongemie pitch that would have been a high strike to Shaquille O’Neal. Suffice it to say, Andrew Stacey is not a 7-foot tall NBA center.
When the next two batters also struck out, the latter looking on an 0-2 pitch that sailed in at the belt, what confidence the young squad had was squelched.
Meanwhile, after a slow start at the plate, St. Dom’s came alive with a run in the second, three more in the third and another pair in the fourth, cruising to an 8-1 WMC baseball win Monday.
“It was pretty important to start off like that,” said Fongemie,. “Last game I pitched, I walked three batters in one inning, so to only walk one all game and strike out the first three, that gave me confidence for the rest of the game.”
Jon Rutt provided a good chunk of the Saints’ offense, going 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, a triple, a run scored and an RBI.
Jake Albert was the only other St. Dom’s hitter with two hits, but several others reached multiple times on errors and walks.
“They weren’t very strong defensively, so we took advantage of that,” said Albert. “When we stranded three in the first we knew we had to come out and hit the ball hard. They made some plays, but not enough.”
Only three of the Saints’ runs were earned, and only one of the first six.
“We have a very young team,” said Sacopee coach David Martin. “We had two freshmen pitching today, our numbers are down and we are dealing with academic ineligibility. The biggest thing for us today was to gain the experience for these younger players.”
Starting pitcher Kyle Logan, save for two early singles, pitched well, allowing just one earned run in four innings. The unearned runs, though, started piling up in the third.
Rutt bit a one-out triple to deep right field on the first pitch, and stayed on third as Brady Blackman grounded back to the pitcher for the second out. On what should have been the third out of the inning, Stacey had a John Emerson knock skirt through his legs, plating Carpenter. The Saints scored two more runs that inning to go ahead 4-0.
“It was tough for us to get used to his pitching at first,” said St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman. “It wasn’t quite up to what we normally see. That first pitcher kept us back until the bats started to come alive.”
After Sacopee scored its own unearned run on a Peter Lewis throwing error, St. Dom’s tacked on two more unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth, and earned two in the sixth to cap the scoring.
Mike Griswold pitched two innings for the Saints, allowing two of the Hawks’ four hits and striking out three, and Brady Blackman came in in the seventh, striking out the side to close out the game.
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