HYANNIS – With a host of college scouts behind the McKeon Park backstop with radar guns in hand, St. John Paul II ace Joe Oriola got the job done.
St. John Paul II’s Joe Oriola spun a complete-game five-hit shutout in the Lions’ tourney opener against Westport Friday night.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
A hard-throwing junior right-hander, Oriola paced the Lions with a complete-game shutout in what ended up being a one-sided, 15-0, rout of 16th seed Westport (10-9) in the preliminary round of the MIAA Division 4 South Sectionals. He struck out six batters, scattered five hits and walked only two. He also went 3-4 at the plate including a three-run triple in the first inning.
St. John Paul II plated six runs in the first inning, added one more in the third, two in the fifth and four more in the sixth inning.
Lions’ junior Eric Del Rosso went 2-3 for the Lions, Coleman Fenton went 2-2, Cole Campbell went 2-4 and rightfielder Jonny Warden, who has been Mr. Clutch all season long, went 3-4 o the evening.
Westport’s pitching staff afforded the host and top-seeded Lions seven free passes, including the first three batters of the game, before the deluge of Lion hits rained upon the McKeon Park green carpet.
St. John Paul II also flashed a little bit of leather in this tourney-opening win, with shortstop Matt Santos and Jake Good looking good up the middle and Warden handing in some key hustle plays.
St. John Paul II will next face 8th seed Marian but the time, date and locale have not yet been finalized for their first round match-up.
MIAA Division 4 South Sectional: #6 Mashpee 8 — Southeastern Regional 2
An Ari Purdy two-run inside-the-park home run that made it 4-0, spelled the difference for the Mashpee Falcons (16-7) in their first round match-up with Southeastern Regional Friday
Mashpee High School’s Ari Purdy belted a two-run inside-the-park homer to help pace the Falcons to an 8-2 tourney win Friday afternoon.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
afternoon, while ace Jason Demers went the distance for the win.
Mashpee got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning after Purdy led off with a walk followed by a pair of hits and then a sacrifice fly from Jordan Pinhack to make it 1-0 and little by little, piece by piece, the Falcons added to that lead en route to eliminating Southeastern from postseason contention. James Murphy drove in a run with a basehit to make it 2-0 after the first frame.
Ahead 2-0, Purdy followed up his first-inning walk and run scored with a two-run laser that bounced past a diving outfielder for an inside-the-park homer that made it 4-0 before Southeastern for its first run to make it 4-1 heading into the top of the fifth. The score remained 4-1 after five frames when a triple off Demers and a wild pitch made it 4-2, but in the bottom of the sixth Mashpee sealed the victory.
Michael Fraser ripped a two-run single to highlight a four-run rally for the Falcons and the eventual final score of 8-2.
Mashpee will host 14th seed Cohasset (13-7) in the Division 4 South quarterfinals on a date and at a time to be announced this weekend.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
About CapeCod.com NewsCenter
