Repeat performance for St. Mary’s

HOPKINTON — When St. Mary’s ace Aiven Cabral allowed a walk and three straight hits for two runs to open Thursday’s Div. 2 state final, it seemed that Hopkinton would be the first team to really get to the junior, who allowed just three runs all year until that point.

By the time he reached the 115-pitch limit with one out in the seventh inning, though, he had dialed in for another solid start to lead the Spartans to a second straight state title — both over the Hillers.

Cabral fanned nine in a five-hit, four-walk performance over 6 1/3 innings, pairing with a three-run fourth inning from the offense on great base-running to propel St. Mary’s (19-6) past Hopkinton (15-4), 5-2. Cabral played a big role from the plate as well, having a hand in the game-tying and go-ahead runs to set himself up on the mound and secure the title.

He and Dante D’Ambrosio each scored twice, while Terence Moynihan (2-for-4) drove in a timely run to help the Spartans win their 14th game out of the last 15.

“These guys, the one thing that they did see is … that the state tournament is something special,” said head coach Derek Dana. “If you lose your focus for one minute, that one mistake turns into two mistakes and all of a sudden you find yourself out of the tournament. They really, really didn’t (let that happen) this whole run … they just kept focus, next guy up.”

The Spartans found themselves in one of those situations very early, as a lead from Colby Magliozzi’s RBI-walk in the first inning was quickly negated from an electric start by the Hopkinton offense in the bottom half of the frame.

A leadoff walk and a double from Ronald Shamus rapidly turned into a 2-1 lead for the Hillers when Dylan Locke jumped all over an 0-2 pitch from Cabral for a two-run single. Once Nicholas Paharik (2-for-3) singled and stole second with no outs for more pressure on Cabral, it looked like Hopkinton had found the secret against one of the top pitchers in the state.

Cabral wouldn’t let that string of hits get to him, though, striking out two of the next three batters to get out of the jam. He struck out the side in the next frame, and quickly evaporated early trouble with his pitch count by making quick work to retire 11 of the next 15 batters without allowing another run. That included an 11-pitch fourth inning, 17 pitches in the fifth and 10 in the sixth.

“I just tried to mix it up, try to keep them off-balance and grind it out,” Cabral said. “I really wasn’t (thinking about the pitch count). Last inning they were like, ‘You’re at 112 (pitches), you have one batter left.’ I was like, ‘I’m just going to have to do my job and let my teammates finish it.’ ”

“This wasn’t his best performance, stuff-wise, but mentality — he just competes,” Dana added. “That (first) inning could’ve got a lot bigger than what it did but he refused to let it happen.”

Down 2-1 in the third, Cabral tagged up from second to get to third with one out after leading off with a single, setting the stage for a sacrifice fly from Zac Fisher to tie it at 2-2.

Just one inning later, St. Mary’s made more noise as Tad Giardina’s leadoff double quickly turned into runners on second and third with two outs and Cabral at the plate. He was intentionally walked, and Hopkinton starter Vinnie Purpura threw a wild pitch that scored both Giardina and D’Ambrosio for a 4-2 Spartans lead. Moynihan singled in Cabral two pitches later for insurance.

“We do work on base-running quite a bit,” Dana said on that fourth inning. “We don’t bash the ball, but we do have some timely hitting and we do run the bases pretty well. Just a total team win.”

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