Thursday, March 30, 2017
Mooney pitchers struggle as Howland enjoys romp
By ERIC FORTUNE
STRUTHERS
The Cardinal Mooney baseball team’s pitching staff had a rough go of it Wednesday at Bob Cene Field, losing 9-1 to Howland.
On one hand, they gave up just four hits to the Tigers. On the other hand, they gave up 14 walks and hit two other batters going through five pitchers.
“I’ve been preaching to this team, it doesn’t matter how we get it done,” Howland coach Justin Drapp said. “I don’t care how we get on base — error, walk. I just don’t look at hits. It’s just getting on base and giving your team a chance to win. That’s what they did.”
Howland (1-0) was led by Dylan Keller who was 2-for-3 with two singles and two RBIs. Cameran Dickey and Frank Rappach each added two RBIs on a pair of singles.
“We couldn’t find the strike zone,” Cardinal Mooney coach Al Franceschelli said. “It’s baseball. It’s the way it was. It’s the beginning of the year. You’re going to see this.”
After two scoreless innings, the Tigers got on the board in the top of the third when Keith Rounds scored on an errant throw to first on Keller’s grounder to third.
“The first couple of innings, we both had a couple of errors,” Drapp said. “Fortunately, we were able to keep our eye on the ball, be patient at the plate, and make them throw strikes.
“We were able to put the pressure on when we got on the base paths and that made the difference.”
Being patient paid off drastically in the top half of the fourth when Ryan Stefanec came in to relieve Brennen Olesh, who had four strikeouts and three walks.
Stefanec struggled with his control after striking out two of the first three hitters he faced. He walked the next four hitters as the Tigers increased their advantage to 3-0.
Antonio Page came on next in the fourth and walked the next two Howland hitters to make the score 4-0.
This brought Dickey to the plate. His two-run single made it 7-0 as the Tigers opened the game up on just one hit in the inning.
“We could have played better,” Franceschelli said. “Our pitching wasn’t effective as it normally is. That’s really our strength this year. It didn’t show today.”
Meanwhile, Michael Massucci was cruising along with just one hit over the first three innings.
“It was a tremendous defensive game,” Drapp said. “I give the whole team credit, but Mike brought his stuff.
“He brought his lunchbox to work and just pounded that strike zone,” Drapp said. “We never gave them the opportunity to put the pressure on us with the walks like we did.”
His final stat line read four strikeouts, no walks, one earned run, and four hits in a complete game.
“Today, my fastball was producing strikes real well,” Massucci said. “My curveball wasn’t 100 percent today, but I was still able to work through it. My teammates though played great defense. They put the ball in play and worked the count.”
Mooney (0-2) avoided the shutout when Alex Wollet’s single scored Gino Guerrieri in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-1.
“Their pitcher was phenomenal,” Franceschelli said. “He kept us off balance a lot.