HYANNIS – The St. John Paul II baseball team (7-0) received a solid start from senior southpaw Blake Waters last night at McKeon Park, and came back from and early 2-0 deficit to defeat Cape Cod Academy, 7-3.
Waters went six innings and scattered six hits while striking out nine. He allowed three runs and walked four.
Cape Cod Academy got on the scoreboard first after a pair of leadoff walks to Lou DeVesto and Ben Siegel, Jack Massari reached on an error and then Danny Crossen and 8th grader Jack Siegel rapped out a pair of basehits.
Waters settled down to fan the last two batters he faced in the opening frame, and he threw three scoreless innings before allowing one more unearned Cape Cod Academy run to score in the fifth.
Waters’ Lions staked him three runs in the second and another two in the third which would be all he needed to garner the victory.
Eric Del Rosso doubled to lead off the second frame and advanced to third on a wild pitch, Keith Campbell reached on an error and Jonny Warden hit a sacrifice fly to rightfield to make it a 2-1 affair. Cole Campbell singled and then leadoff man Bobby Higgins drove in the third run to make it a 3-2 game in the Lions’ favor.
Matt Santos got things rolling in the third with a basehit and Kevin Marsh reached on an error. Del Rosso reached on a fielder’s choice to plate Santos and then Del Rosso came home on a Joe Oriola RBI-double that made it 5-2.
Marsh, Del Rosso and Warden all factored into a two-run fifth inning for the host Lions to cap the scoring for the night.
Crossen went 3-4 for the Seahawks and Jack Siegel went 2-3.
The Lions’ Santos was the sole batsman with multiple hits as he went 2-3 on the day, but Warden went 1-2 with three RBI.
St. John Paul II next faces Sturgis East at Lowell Park today at 4:00 pm.
Cape Cod Academy (2-3) is at Nantucket today at 4:00 pm.
New Bedford – 16
Barnstable – 4
The Red Raider baseball team’s woes continued Monday on the road, as the host New Bedford Whalers routed the guests, 16-4, at Paul Walsh Memorial Field.
Alex Mercado, Andrew Atsalis and Ryan Proto each had two hits but Barnstable (4-8) had few answers as the Whalers jumped out to an early, 5-0 lead after two frames. All of Barnstable’s four runs came in the fifth inning, three of which were unearned.
Jac Carreiro, who got the win on the mound against Barnstable earlier in the season, got the win again Monday but he added to the fireworks when he belted a solo home run on a 2-0 count to lead off the second frame. Teammate Andrew Rapoza followed with a three-run shot that made it 5-0 and the Red Raiders simply could not put a dent in the deficit.
The Whalers plated seven more runs in the fourth inning to make it 12-0.
Barnstable hopes to get back on track on Wednesday at home versus Falmouth and avenge an earlier season loss to their archrival Clippers.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm