Eight is more than enough for Austin Prep

For Austin Prep, the feeling of securing the final out was more than worth the wait.

Behind five shutout innings in relief from Dom Gabardi and a two-hit night from Jake Elbeery, Austin Prep outlasted Catholic Central Large foe St. Mary’s, 9-1, in 10 innings in front of a small but boisterous crowd on Saturday night at Fraser Field in Lynn.

The two sides combined to throw 320 pitches as the game lasted nearly three hours and 30 minutes.

“We were on the road in a hostile environment and we had every excuse to fold under pressure”, Austin Prep coach Jonathan Pollard said. “For a young team, I am very proud of how they responded. This is something to build off of and what we needed to take this specific team to the next level.”

The game entered the 10th inning even at one with St. Mary’s ace Aiven Cabral (8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 11 Ks) striking out 11 over eight innings of work while Gabardi picked up for Cougars starter Jack Iannibelli (5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER) and put up four straight zeroes.

Facing Spartans reliever Terrance Moynihan the Cougars lineup remained patient working four walks around a sacrifice bunt, the last of which was drawn by Elbeery, to go in front 2-1. Two more walks and a sacrifice fly pushed the lead to 5-1 and then James Mahoney broke the game open with a three run triple to the left center field gap that pushed Austin Prep’s advantage to eight heading into the bottom half of the 10th.

“(Avien) Cabral does it all as a competitor and he’s really tough,” Pollard said. “They brought it and I thought we matched that. I thought early on we hit the ball hard and had some tough luck, but we kept battling. We knew if we got to the bullpen we would have a better chance and we finally were able to put a big number up and we did.”

Scoring opportunities were few and far between for most of the night with Cabral and the combination of Iannibelli and Gabardi keeping the opposing hitters off balance.

The Spartans broke through in the bottom of the fourth as after Cabral led off with a triple, Deniel Ortiz lofted a sacrifice fly to center to put the home team on top 1-0. Austin Prep evened the score in the top half of the sixth as Ernie Little reached on a dropped third strike, stole second, and then came home on a double off the bat of Elbeery.

St. Mary’s had a chance to retake the lead in the home half of the sixth when Gabardi walked a pair but the right-hander induced a pop up and a strikeout on his curveball to end the threat. As the game turned to extra innings both teams found themselves with a chance to jump in front or win the game. In the eighth, Cabral’s final inning of the night, the Cougars put runners on the corners with one out. Cabral, however, generated a 6-3 double play to keep the game tied.

Gabardi meanwhile shutdown the middle of the Spartans order in the eighth before getting a twin killing of his own in the ninth to give his team a chance to win the game as it turned to the 10th inning.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3eVcSW5