Mason Fitzpatrick is mobbed by his teammates after he scores the winning run in the bottom of the 7th inning. Photo by Michael A. Sabo
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Apr. 20: Coming off a woeful performance against Steinert Wednesday night, the Hamilton West baseball team came back with what may well be its best effort of the year.
The result was a 6-5, walk-off win over Notre Dame as Mason Fitzpatrick scored on a throwing error on what could have been an inning-ending double play in the seventh.
And if it wasn’t the best effort, it was definitely the most spirited.
“The most important part is we got a win,” coach Mike “Mo” Moceri said. “I thought we played all seven innings of a game for the first time all year. We played every single inning, the energy was there all seven innings. That’s’ what we need the rest of the way out. We have a big stretch coming up here with the next five games.”
And they wanted to put their Wednesday game far behind them as walks and errors led to an ugly 11-6 loss to the Spartans under the lights at DeMeo Field.
“That definitely tore us up but we knew it was over and we couldn’t get it back,” said second baseman Tyler Springett. “We knew we wanted to come back and take our anger out on this game.”
“We try not to think about that one,” Moceri said. “I always tell them a good team has to stop a losing streak at one. We did a good job of doing that today.”
Springett played a big part in the win, reaching base all four times, driving in two runs and scoring two. He carried a .400 average into the game and leads Hamilton with 11 runs scored and nine walks out of the leadoff spot.
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“In the off season I really focused on my hitting,” Springett said. “That’s where I strived to get better this season and it’s paid off so far.”
It’s paid off handsomely, in fact.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Moceri said. “He’s our spark plug. He just seems to do the right things at the right times. He’s the guy that always seems to get us going, he brings us energy every single day, he works his butt off and the guys really feed off him.”
That happened in the first inning today when Springett walked, moved to third on a wild pitch and ground out and scored on Justin Wiltsey’s single. In the second, Danilo Perdomo singled, took second on an outfield error, was sacrificed to third and scored on Mason Fitzpatrick’s ground-out to make it 2-0.
Making his first start of the season, Ryan “Mini Dweller” Beczo pitched four solid innings except for three hitters. Beczo walked two straight and allowed a two-run double to Bill Trimble to tie it in the third.
“I thought Ryan did a really good job for his first time out,” Moceri said. “He made one bad pitch and walks will always come back to haunt you.”
ND took a 3-2 lead in the fifth but Hamilton responded with three in the bottom of the inning. Bobby Tamasi walked, Fitzpatrick beat out an infield single and Beczo hung in on a curveball coming right at him to drop a sacrifice. Springett roped a two-run double to make it 4-3, and eventually scored on single by Kiefer “Nephew of Bread” Goss.
The Irish battled back to tie it with two unearned runs in the sixth. David Zamora atoned for an error in that inning by posting the only clean inning by a Hornet hurler, setting up the bottom of the seventh.
Oscar West singled and Fitzpatrick dropped a bunt single. Tamasi re-entered for West and came up big on the base paths. After a strikeout, Springett bounced one to short that looked like at least one out. But Tamasi danced in front of the ball to screen the fielder and cause an error to load the bases.
“Bobby’s got wheels,” Moceri said. “That’s what we preach. We’ve got a lot of guys that can run, and with two strikes we preach just getting the ball on the ground and get it the other way and put pressure on the defense. I thought he did a good job there of kind of shielding him.”
Zamora then bounced one to third. The throw came home for the second out, but the relay throw sailed into right field as Fitzpatrick zipped home.
It raised Hamilton’s record to 6-4 and could be the kind of win West can build upon.
“I hope it does,” Springett said. “We know we can beat good teams. Today it really showed. I think we should have won a lot more games than we lost. But I’m proud of this team so far. I think we’re gonna do fine.”
Nottingham falls from ranks of the undefeated
After nine wins to start the season, Nottingham finally tasted defeat in a 10-2 loss at Allentown that was a lot closer than the final score.
In avenging a setback to the Northstars Wednesday, Allentown (7-1-1) took a 3-0 lead in the third. Nottingham chipped away with a run in the fifth and another in the sixth. But Allentown blew it open with seven runs in the bottom of the inning.
Bryce Fremgen and Brett Hoffman drove in runs for Nottingham (9-1), which was limited to four hits while allowing 12.
