St. Mary’s rolls on, holds off English behind early runs

HS BASEBALL

Boston, MA - April 28 - English’s #1 Luis Mejia gets ready to tag out St. Mary’s Jaiden Driscoll during a rundown during a baseball game. PHOTO BY MATT STONE — BOSTON HERALD

Boston, MA - April 28 - English’s Anyer Gomez makes a pop out catch as Many DeJesus looks on during a baseball game against St. Mary’s. PHOTO BY MATT STONE — BOSTON HERALD

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By Brian Roach

broach@bostonherald.com

In what ended up being a slugfest, St. Mary’s of Lynn answered offensively to an athletic English squad on the road Monday evening.

After building an early 3-0 advantage, the Spartans fended off the Eagles 9-6 in a nonleague matchup to send English High to its third straight defeat.

“(English) is a well-coached team,” said St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana about facing the Eagles. “They love playing baseball. They play hard and they’re very athletic. … You played a funky field (with) funky bounces and if you don’t play, if you don’t knock them out when you get a good chance to do it, they’re going to be in the game right to the end. And they were.”

St. Mary’s (10-1) got the offense started early as they scored twice in the first with an RBI single for junior Kyle Doney followed by an RBI double for starting pitcher Josh Doney. He was thrown out at third to end the inning before putting the Spartans up 2-0.

The Spartans tacked on another in the top of the third as junior Michael DeMaino stole home on a pickoff attempt to first to make it 3-0.

English (6-3) got one back on an unearned run in the bottom of the fourth as a safety squeeze scored sophomore Jaurel Melo from third to make it a 3-1 contest.

St. Mary’s then answered with runs for the next three frames starting with three runs in the top of the fifth as another RBI single for Josh Doney (3-for-4, 2 RBI, 2 runs) was followed by an RBI groundout to second for junior Jacob Peterson and an RBI fielder’s choice for senior Shea Newhall to push the lead out to 6-1.

“We did answer back every time we needed to answer back,” said Dana about being able to keep the offensive pressure on after English scored.

The Eagles would not be outdone and put together a four-run bottom of the fifth as Melo cranked a three-run triple to right-center before coming around to score on an Anyer Gomez fielder’s choice to make it a 6-5 contest.

The Spartans answered again with a run in the top of the sixth as senior Cam McGonagle drove in DeMaino with a groundout to second to make it 7-5.

English nearly tied it up as Melo lined a single to right with junior Ismael Villar scoring, but Armanis Romero was called out at third before Yeduardy Soto could cross the plate to keep the score at 7-6.

St. Mary’s once again responded with two more runs scoring in the top of the seventh, including a rare runner scoring from third on a called infield fly rule as the ball landed in fair territory to cap the scoring at 9-6.

On the hill, left-hander Josh Doney went the distance with eight strikeouts and worked hard baserunners in the sixth and seventh to keep English from tying it up or going ahead late, including striking out the final two batters he faced.

“(Josh Doney) is our leader on the mound,” said Dana. “He’s been the leader for the last three years. He’s pitched in huge games and he’s delivered.