The Cambridge baseball team opened the 2019 season on the road with games against two traditional baseball powers in North Hall and nationally-ranked Blessed Trinity. First up was North Hall on Wednesday, February 13th.
@ North Hall
Junior Casey Young got the start for the visitors and neither team could get anything going in the first two innings. The home team pushed across an unearned run in the third to take a 1-0 lead. That lead would not last long as senior Mitch Fleming led off the fourth with a monster home run to left to tie the game. Walks by Ross Friedrick and Jared Spears set up junior Nicholas Armstrong, who responded with an RBI single and a 2-1 Cambridge lead. Matt Faby stepped to the plate and lofted a single to center to drive in another run. Armstrong would later score by error and Faby then scored on a wild pitch to close out the scoring with a 5-1 Cambridge lead.
North Hall pushed a run across on a couple of hits before Young was replaced by senior Evan Pollifrone. Three hits and a controversial call on a bang-bang play in the infield pushed the score to 5-5 after four. Spears made sure the tie didn't last long by powering his first career home run to left to give the visitors a 6-5 lead.
North Hall tied the game at 6 in the bottom of the sixth courtesy of a walk and a double. Cambridge came to the plate in the seventh needing a run, and they did that and more. Walks to Fleming and Spears sandwiched an error on a ball hit by Friedrick to load the bases. Junior Grayson Dato drove in the go ahead run on an infield single. Armstrong followed with a double to the corner in left to drive in two more. Faby then squeezed home Dato to make the score 10-6.
North Hall did not go down without a fight in the bottom of the seventh, loading the bases on three walks off of Kenny Rosenbloom before Nick Dato entered the game and earned the save by striking out the final two batters to preserve a 10-7 victory.
Mitch Fleming and Jared Spears provided the power with a home run each, while Nicholas Armstrong had two hits and three RBI. Matt Faby drove in a couple. Evan Pollifrone earned the win in relief, allowing three runs in his three innings with seven strikeouts. Nick Dato earned his first career save.
@ Blessed Trinity
Cambridge played on consecutive nights as this game was pulled forward a day due to anticipated bad weather. Senior Blake Renner got the start for Cambridge and pitched a whale of a game against a potent BT offense. Neither offense could gain any traction through the first three innings. Cambridge wasted a Nicholas Armstrong double in the third, their only hit to that point.
Blessed Trinity got on the board in the fourth courtesy of a single and a double on a hit-and-run to go up 1-0. The Bears offense began to pick up, but couldn't string hits together, wasting a Cody Rech single in the fourth and another Armstrong double in the fifth. Senior Michael Polk entered the game for Renner and pitched a scoreless fifth.
Senior Danny DeSousa singled to lead off the sixth but was wiped out on an impressive 4-6-3 DP. BT pushed across two more in the bottom of the inning courtesy of three singles to make the score 3-0. Cambridge brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh with one out but could not push anything across and the game ended with a 3-0 defeat.
Nicholas Armstrong led the offense with two doubles. Danny DeSousa and Cody Rech had the other two hits. Blake Renner was the tough luck loser, going four innings and allowing a run on four hits with five strikeouts.
Cambridge returns to action with a pair of home games on Saturday, February 16. Game one is at noon versus Decatur, while game two is at 5 PM versus West Forsyth.
Go Bears!