KINGSTON – You have to hand it to them for their perseverance.
The Sturgis East baseball team (6-6) continued to inch closer toward a postseason berth Saturday morning when it hit the road and picked up a key, come-from-behind, 10-4 win over host Sacred Heart.
The Sturgis East nine took home a solid, 10-4 win over Sacred Heart Saturday afternoon to even out at 6-6 thus far on the season.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
Storm ace Kyle Coolidge got the victory on the hill with five innings of work, as he struck out eight and allowed four runs on five hits and four walks. Cooper Gavin came on in the sixth inning and struck out five in two innings of relief work. Gavin allowed just two hits and no walks as well as no runs.
“We really forced the issue today,” head coach John Havey said. “Stolen bases, hit and run, aggressive base-running… amazing what you can do when you have baserunners.”
Sacred Heart jumped out on top in the bottom of the first inning with four hits wrapped around a pair of walks and one error and left Sturgis East wondering if the bus ride home might end up being a long one.
But starter Coolidge settled down to strike out a pair to get out of the inning with one man on and completed the next four frames without allowing another run.
Sturgis picked up one run in the top of the second inning, narrowing the deficit to 4-1, before erupting for four runs in the third for a 5-4 lead. It was a lead that would prove to be all Coolidge and Gavin would need to close the door on the hosts.
Ryan Havey got things rolling in the third with a one-out base-knock, followed by a basehit from Andrew Williams and a run-scoring fielder’s choice from Coolidge before Jared Joy launched an RBI-double. When the inning finally came to a close, Sturgis East had its 5-4 lead.
The Storm plated another four runs in the fifth inning with an RBI-triple from Kevin Agostinelli , an RBI-basehit by Joy and a sacrifice fly from Seamus Devine.
Agostinelli went 2-3 with an RBI for his day’s work, and Joy, Havey and Williams each went 2-4.
“The boys took advantage of a couple of miscues and we had big hits, something we hadn’t been doing,” Coach Havey said. “Leaving guys stranded had been killing us.”
Sturgis East is back in action on Tuesday (May 12) when it welcomes Cape Cod Tech to Lowell Park at 4:00 pm.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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