Calvary Christian Wins 13-5 In Saturday Matinee Game With Pope John Paul II

Calvary Christian’s hitters had been striking out way too much.

Coach Gregg Mucerino decided to focus all of their practice time this week strictly to improving this issue.

On Saturday, the team enjoyed the fruits of those labors as they pounded out 12 hits in defeating Pope John Paul II 13-5 to remain perfect at home this season.

But more importantly, they struck out only once the entire afternoon.

“We made a solid, conscious effort to do a better job with two strikes,” Mucerino said. “When you put the ball in play, you have a chance for big innings, and that is what happened today. We’ve proven to ourselves that we can have those kind of innings, and then we can use our team speed.”

Calvary (5-3) had nine stolen bases and wrecked havoc at the plate as every starter reached base to contribute.

Starting pitcher Andrew Liberty was a key component to several big innings, going 2-for-4 with two RBI and two stolen bases. The junior admitted to changing his swing for the game.

“I have been in front, so I tried to stay longer and stay back,” Liberty said.

Calvary staked itself to an early lead with a big five-run first inning, an inning in which it batted around in sending 10 batters to the plate.

Andrew Gottfried had a one-out single up the middle and Liberty drove a shot to the left-field corner for a standup double that sent him home with the game’s first run. Liberty stole third and Austin Sovay walked, setting up a perfectly executed double-steal to bring Liberty home. Stephen Barrett then singled to center to drive in Sovay.

The Calvary offense was far from finished there, as Jonathan Benestadt walked and reached second on the back end of a double-steal with Barrett. Abraham Alejandro followed with a deep shot to the left corner for a standup double that scored both runners.

“It’s a big comfort level,” Liberty said of the early lead. “I just tried to go pound the zone and throw strikes and know that my defense had my back.”

The right-hander threw 73 pitches over three and one-third innings, allowing six hits and four walks while striking out four.

Compounding the loss for Pope (3-4), and in some ways contributing to it, was the loss of freshman starting pitcher Alex Bialakis, who left the game after being hit in the face with a comebacker off the bat of Nick Kumar in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Bialakis never went to the ground but was clearly dazed and needed to be helped off the field. Preliminary diagnosis was a concussion, and the right-hander was taken to a hospital for further diagnosis.

The scary moment occurred amidst a three-run fourth, the last run coming across on Kumar’s hit as none of the Pope players were able to reach the ball in time to prevent the run from scoring after the ball had hit off of their starting pitcher and died on the infield grass.

Senior Ryan Reilly had ignited the inning with a double and stolen base to set himself up at third base. Gottfried followed with a bloop single to left to score Reilly, and then he came in on a triple off the bat of Liberty.

Calvary’s Jake Jackson and Luke Poirer combined to close out the final eight outs, limiting Pope with no hits and only one run allowed.

“We are ecstatic for our pitching today,” Mucerino said. “Andrew Liberty was great and Jake Jackson is really coming into his own, and they all were pounding the strike zone.”

Liberty picked up his first victory of the season to improve to 1-1.

Leave a comment using your facebook account!