Massaro’s Arm And Timely Defense Carry Nova To Tournament Title

The Nova Titans are silencing their critics this season one shutout inning at a time. The Titans used another strong mound and defensive performance to win their Spring Break Tournament Tuesday night 3-0 over a game Bartow team.

Titans starter Troy Massaro went the distance in the win, working out of a couple jams by inducing ground ball double plays, and the offense did just enough to help Nova close out the tournament they host with a perfect 3-0 record.

Massaro only gave up four hits on the evening, while striking out five. The Titans pitcher had a game plan of getting ahead of the Bartow hitters with the first pitch, but Massaro credited his team’s defense for the win on Tuesday.

“Amazing,” said Massaro of his defense on this night. “The defense saved me a few times. Especially that one double play to short, that kid hit a shot, and that was pretty much the key to the game.”

Nova’s offense had plenty of opportunities to put the game away, the biggest of which came in the second inning. Two errors to start the Titans second put runners on first and second for Matthew Zanis. The junior singled to load the bases, and after a strikeout, Adam Mund walked, forcing in the Titans first run.

Lead-off hitter Zach Kleiman the pulled off a successful squeeze play on a 3-1 count. Skylar Fox scored on the play, but the inning ended when Zanis was tagged out at the plate while he tried to score from second on the bunt.

Nova has played ten games this season and has only been scored on in one of those games, a loss to St. Thomas. The tempo with which the Titans pitchers throw keeps the defense in the game at all times, and that allows for performances such as Tuesday when bang-bang double plays were the difference between winning and losing.

“Defensively we made some big plays,” said Nova Head Coach Pat McQuaid. “Pitching and defense carried us the whole tournament.”

Seeing plenty of tournament wins over the years, McQuaid pointed to the player maturation process as a reason why these wins never get old.

“What you do is you like to watch the kids be successful,” said McQuaid. “I was really excited for Troy (Massaro) today. He pitched a great ballgame, it’s only his second start of the year, and he threw a lot of ground balls, and defensively we made some plays.”

George Gugino, the Titans shortstop and number three hitter was the tournament MVP for the Titans. Nova will now take the weekend off from games before beginning preparations for the second half of the season. The Titans will have a chance to avenge their only loss of the year next Friday when they host St. Thomas at 7 PM in a District 16-5A showdown.

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