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Ursuline outlasts Mooney despite getting no-hit for 82/3
— HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL —
By Steve Wilaj
STRUTHERS
It certainly wasn’t pretty.
But after Ursuline was no-hit for the first 82/3 innings, the Irish weren’t looking for style points on Joel Hake’s game-winning infield single.
“It was a fitting way to end it — just a seeing-eye infield hit,” Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said. “At that point, though, we’d have taken it any way we could get it.”
Hake’s walk-off infield single clinched Ursuline’s come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Cardinal Mooney in nine innings Tuesday night at Cene Park. The Irish (12-3) prevailed despite getting no-hit for the first 26 outs and being down to their last out in two different innings.
“It’s a big win,” said Ursuline’s Vito Petrillo, who started on the mound and allowed two runs in 72/3 innings while striking out 10. “It showed that we have composure and we can come through in big situations.”
Hake’s game-winner was set up by Vito Penza’s two-out single in the ninth — Ursuline’s first hit of the game. Penza advanced to third on a throwing error on Gianni Quattro’s grounder and then came around to score when Hake’s ground ball died in front of Mooney’s shortstop.
Andrew Armstrong took the loss for the Cardinals (10-7) as he surrendered both hits.
“It was a matter of who was able to scrape a couple runs across and I’m proud of our kids,” Durkin said.
Mooney took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh, but Cardinals starter Jon Saadey walked Petrillo to begin the frame and exited despite not allowing a hit.
“Jon wasn’t even supposed to play because of a bad hamstring,” Mooney coach Al Francheschelli said of Saadey, who walked four and struck out six in six innings. “But he wanted to throw and needless to say he could have won the game.”
In relief, Armstrong walked Drew Potesta and then committed an error on Logan Pullin’s bunt to load the bases with no outs. He recovered to strike out the next two before walking Penza to tie the game at 1.
Ursuline then fought back a second time after Mooney regained the lead on Jack Lynch’s eighth-inning RBI single.
Down to their last out in the bottom of the eighth, the Irish tied it on a Mooney throwing error on Potesta’s grounder to third. The throw to first skipped down the right-field line and allowed Hake to score from second.
“We certainly showed some resilience,” Durkin said. “It would have been easy to get demoralized when you’re not doing anything offensively.”
Bobby Dulay earned the victory for Ursuline as he pitched12/3 scoreless innings in relief. Both of Mooney’s runs came off Petrillo, who allowed four hits and walked two.
“If you couldn’t back him up with the effort he gave today, you don’t have much of a pulse,” Durkin said. “He really kept us in the game.”
Mooney’s Armstrong allowed two runs as he walked four and struck out five in his 22/3 relief innings.
“Any time you’re throwing a no-hitter into the ninth inning, you have to win the game,” Francheschelli said. “I thought we played extremely good and pitched extremely good. But at the end of the day, we didn’t make the plays at the times that we needed to.”