After taking off time for spring break, the Cambridge varsity baseball team returned to face baseball power Marist HS in a doubleheader at Marist. The home team featured two strong future Power 5 pitchers, and the Cambridge bats could not get much going in either game.
Game 1: Marist 3 - Cambridge 0
Neither offense could do much in the early innings. Blake Renner started on the mound and cruised through three scoreless innings for the Bears. Cambridge could only generate one hit through three, a Ross Friedrick single in the first.
Turner Rosenbaum replaced Renner in the fourth and continued the strong pitching effort, throwing two scoreless innings of his own. The Bears offense mounted its first threat in the fourth when Friedrick singled again. Pinch-runner Justin Hozman was then cut down trying to steal. Mitch Fleming followed with a single right before a Jared Spears double down the right field line put two in scoring position. The rally stalled there, however.
Marist scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth against Bears reliever Nick Dato to take a 3-0 lead. A one-out double by Spears in the seventh kept things interesting before the Marist lefty buckled down and closed out the game and the 3-0 victory for the home team.
Spears led the offense with two doubles in three trips to the plate. Friedrick added a couple of singles. Renner went three shutout innings of two-hit ball with three strikeouts. Rosenbaum allowed two hits in two scoreless innings including a couple of strikeouts. Dato took the loss.
Game 2: Marist 11 - Cambridge 0
In contrast to game one, Marist came out of the gate strong, opening up a big early lead and coasting to an easy victory. Casey Young got the start on the mound and allowed four runs in the first on three hits, a walk, a HBP and a Cambridge error. Serving as the home team in the game, the Bears batted in the bottom of the first and threatened after a Cody Rech triple to right, but he was left stranded.
Marist pushed another couple of runs across in the second before Young was replaced by Jordan Payne. Marist then pushed two more across to take an insurmountable 8-0 lead. Danny DeSousa and Jackson Woods each had one-out singles in the bottom of the second, but both were once again left stranded.
Marist pushed across one run in each of the next three innings, while the Cambridge offense could only produce a Matt Faby single in the fifth, so the game ended by run rule 11-0 in favor of Marist.
The Cambridge offense produce four hits, highlighted by Rech's triple in the first. Young took the loss, his second of the season.
Cambridge returns to region play with a game at Chattahoochee on Monday, April 8th. Game time is 5:55 PM.
Go Bears!