NEWARK – Matt Phillips pitched six shutout innings, and the St. Mark’s offense did all of its damage in one inning, as the Spartans defeated Delaware Military Academy, 6-0, in nonconference baseball on April 17. Christian Colmery threw the last inning for the Spartans to complete the shutout.
Both teams put runners on base, but runs were hard to come by. St. Mark’s leadoff batters reached base in both the first and second innings, but a pickoff ended the threat in the first inning, and the Seahawks turned a double play in the second. DMA had runners reach with one out in each of the first two innings, but in both cases, Phillips struck out the final two batters to end those Seahawks opportunities.
The Spartans batted around in the third against Jonathan Hines, when they scored all six of their runs. Nick Pisorchik singled to left field to lead things off, and he scored when the next hitter, Matt Sinko, sent a fastball high over the left field fence for a two-run home run.
After a batter was thrown out trying to stretch a single into two bases, St. Mark’s restarted the offense. J.J. Psenicska reached on an error, and Eric Ludman doubled, putting men at second and third. Phillips helped his own cause with a single, driving in both runners. Courtesy runner Jimmy Paoli stole second, advanced to third on a Jacob Meisel single and scored on a fielder’s choice by Colmery. Ben Anderson would plate Colmery with another base hit to wrap up the scoring.
Delaware Military put its first two batters on base in the bottom of the third on a walk to James Hahn and a Jackson Tyer single. Phillips retired the next two Seahawks, but a walk loaded the bases. As he had in the first two innings, Phillips got a strikeout for out number three, but the ball skipped past Anderson to the fence. Anderson’s only hope was to throw to first, and a fully stretched Ludman scooped the short-hopped throw that barely beat Zach McCloskey.
The Seahawks threatened again in the sixth, this time loading the bases with no one out on a walk to McCloskey and singles by Wyatt Minner and Patrick Crawford, who had come in to pitch in the top of the frame. Phillips got the first out on a foul pop to Ludman, then Hahn smacked a line drive to Psenicska at third, who was able to catch the runner off the bag at second for an inning-ending double play.
Colmery allowed a two-out single in the seventh, but a ground ball to Ludman ended the game.
Aside from the third inning, Hines was very effective for the Seahawks. He faced just 13 batters total in the other four innings. Crawford pitched two innings of no-hit baseball, with a batter reaching on an error with two outs in the seventh. Crawford struck out three. Offensively, Tyer and Minner each had two hits. DMA (5-3) hosts Caesar Rodney at noon Tuesday at Newark National Little League.
For St. Mark’s, Phillips allowed six hits and Colmery one, and Phillips struck out seven. Phillips also had three hits and two runs batted in to lead the Spartans, who improved to 8-2. They are off until next Wednesday, when they host Salesianum at 4 p.m.
