Freshmen have their day as Saints win a pair

By Chip Knighton

Published: April 12, 2008

On a day filled with stellar performances from freshmen, David Spinosa played perhaps the biggest role.
After pitching a scoreless inning and scoring the winning run in St. Anne’s-Belfield’s 8-7 morning victory over Benedictine, Spinosa and fellow freshman Kevin White hit home runs in the Saints’ afternoon matchup with Maury. He then shut the door on Commodores star Marcus Breeden to clinch a 5-3 STAB victory on Saturday at Perry Field.
For the day, Spinosa went a combined 4 for 7 with two home runs, a triple, a win and a save.
“David Spinosa had a huge day today,” said STAB coach Alan Swanson. “He comes in twice and relieves, hits two home runs, hits a triple in the first game.”
Spinosa’s two-run home run was the big blow in the bottom of the first inning against Maury (10-1). After Kyle Long drove in Spinosa’s older brother, Michael, with an opposite-field single, David drove a two-strike Karter Rivera pitch over the left-center field wall.
Maury got two runs back in the top of the fourth after getting two runners on base with no outs. STAB starter Quinn Saunders got Coby Cowgill and Doug Hatcher to ground out to a drawn-in infield, but Commodores shortstop Brian Bashara drove in Breeden and Rivera with a double to left field.
White got the lead back to three runs by punching a Rivera pitch over the left-field wall for a two-run homer in the bottom of the frame.
“When I hit it, it was off the cap, so I didn’t think it was going to go out,” White said. “It just caught a draft of wind, I guess.”
With Maury down to its last three outs, pinch-hitter Steven Overcamp beat out a high chopper to lead off the seventh. He moved to second on a groundout and scored from there on John Garrett’s two-out infield single off the glove of diving second baseman Brett Goodloe.
With Garrett on first, Maryland-bound catcher Breeden represented the tying run at the plate. He went after Spinosa’s first offering and popped it up to first baseman Long to end the game.
“It looked like he had a good pitch to hit,” said Maury coach Jack Baker. “He just got under it and popped it up. That’s who we wanted up there. He’s won a lot of games for us.”
“I was supposed to not give him too much,” David Spinosa added. “I threw one that was pretty hittable - he just missed it.”
Breeden’s last out was his second high-pressure pop-up of the game. He flied out to Goodloe with runners at second and third with one out in the fifth, and Saunders got Rivera to ground out to Long on his final pitch.
“I was just trying to throw strikes and attack the hitters,” Saunders said. “I was working a little too high today and they were hitting some line drives off me. I got lucky, though — a few line drives got caught out there by my outfielders.”
Heavy winds caused problems for both teams in the field, with the Commodores appearing to have more trouble. White’s wind-blown homer was preceded by a Brian Yeagle pop-up that eluded a diving Rivera. Later in the inning, Saunders wound up with a double when his fly ball got away from left fielder Zack Rinerth.
“Every pop-up was an adventure,” Swanson said.
In the opener against Benedictine, the Saints scored four runs in the sixth to tie the game at seven. David Spinosa led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple and Cadets pitcher Ryan West intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases. West then walked Sean Zirkle to score Spinosa and end the game.
STAB (9-3) returns to the field on Tuesday with a road game against Trinity Episcopal.