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Ursuline's Lucente shuts out Mooney
By Gary Housteau
STRUTHERS
It was all Ursuline in the rubber match of the Youngstown Holy War on the baseball diamond Friday night at Bob Cene Park.
The Irish used a five-run second-inning scoring blitz to defeat Cardinal Mooney handily, 6-0.
“Last time we played Mooney we felt like we let one get away,” said Ursuline head coach Matt Weymer. “So we really stressed coming out here and just taking care of our part and our kids did a great job responding.
“We played a real nice, clean game in the field and Vinny [Lucente] threw a lot of strikes and we cashed in on our opportunities, so it was nice to bounce back after the last time.”
The last time these two archrivals got together on the baseball diamond was at the Bob Cene Catholic Baseball Tournament, in which Mooney won a hotly contested battle with a two-run seventh inning to defeat Ursuline 7-6, on the same field.
“Usually you only get to play Mooney twice and losing the way we did the last time, that would have been a hard one to end the season on,” Weymer said. “So I told them we were lucky we got a third game so definitely it was a rubber match and our kids really wanted it. It was the last time that Mooney and Ursuline were going to play in a competitive environment for 2016 and you wanted to end that on a good note. So 6-0 is a great way to end it.
“I think our kids really did a good job just not really focusing on the last time, just focusing on us, and we played a real nice game tonight.”
Lucente, Ursuline’s senior ace, had a stellar performance on the mound, He firing a complete-game, eight-strikeout masterpiece, holding the Cardinals to just three hits.
“I thought Vinny obviously threw a great game — he’s been really, really good this year,” Weymer said. “Any time you give Vinny six runs, you got to feel pretty good about your chances.
“He commanded the zone and didn’t get rattled. He really pounded the zone and threw really well. He’s been such a horse for us all year. He wants the ball in the big games and he had a big game tonight. He showed up for us and that’s what you want out of your ace. He was great.”
Freshman John Mikos started on the mound for Mooney and after a scoreless first, things fell apart for him rather quickly in the second inning when Logan Pullin led off the top of the inning with a double before Mikos hit the next batter and followed that with a walk to load the bases. Devin Curd relieved Mikos and proceeded to walk in the first run of the game and he followed that with a wild pitch to give Ursuline a 2-0 lead.
Later in the inning, Brice Bokesch hit a two-run single to put the Irish up 4-0 before a double steal plated the fifth Ursuline run of the inning. Drew Potesta had an RBI single in the fourth to complete the scoring for the Irish.
Alex Schlosser, Chris Patton and Potesta each had two hits to lead the attack on offense for the Irish, who improve to 12-8 on the campaign, while Jack Lynch had two of the three Mooney hits in the contest.