WEIMAN HURLS NO-HITTER FOR SPALDING

By Mike Buchanan
mbuchanan@digitalsports.com

With a chance to move into a first-place tie with a win, John Carroll ran into a major roadblock yesterday.

Freshman pitcher Emily Weiman was the obstacle, one the Patriots could not overcome, as the freshman pitcher hurled a no-hitter in leading Archbishop Spalding to a 3-0 home win.

Entering the game, Spalding was 5-0 and John Carroll was 4-1, in first and second place in the IAAM A Conference standings. A JC win would have given the teams identical 5-1 records. Weiman’s masterpiece was huge, giving the Cavaliers a two-game lead in the A and some breathing room, while also giving No. 1 starter Elaine Nescio a much-needed breather.

Nescio had pitched two games in a row, going nine innings in Tuesday’s 4-3 extra-inning win over Seton Keough, and then going four innings to complete a 10-4 win over Mount de Sales the very next day.

The Mount de Sales game was originally played last Thursday, but was postponed and then completed this week on Wednesday.

“Scoring five runs in the top of the fourth (where the game was picked up) really set a nice tone for us,” said Spalding Head Coach Paul O’Brien. “Elaine [Nescio] pitched a great game; I feel that she is one of our area's most dominant pitchers. To come out yesterday and throw like she did after going nine innings against Keough on Tuesday really shows what kind of grit this kid plays with. And Meghan Van Meter has certainly had a very special start to her senior season. Going 13 for 18 (.722) over five games is pretty special. She also leads the team in Runs Scored (9) and RBI (6).”

Nescio helped her own cause in the win over the Sailors with a triple, part of a 16-hit attack for the Cavaliers. Weiman wielded a potent bat, banging out a double and a triple.

Then, fast forward to Thursday, and Weiman took up where she left off. She added another triple with the bat, knocking in two of the three Spalding runs, and stifled the Patriots with her arm on the mound. She faced three hitters over the minimum, allowing just two walks and one hit batsman, while striking out eight.

“It is really nice to see a freshman perform this well against a quality opponent. As the season nears the end, and we start to jam in all these make-up games, it is good for us to see that we can give Elaine a rest if she needs one.  Having Elaine's arm fresh for the play-offs could be huge for us,” said O’Brien.

Delaney Bell (SR, SS) and Meghan Van Meter (SR, 2B) both went 2 for 3 at the plate for Spalding, and Alex Straitz (SO, C) was 1 for 3 with a triple and RBI.

“I could not have been happier with our play this week. This team is truly special.  They come out to play hard everyday. And though that sounds cliche, it is actually hard to do. Keeping that edge will be a major challenge this season, as we will be forced to cram a lot of games into a pretty short window of time. But these kids, with our excellent senior leadership, are showing that they are truly up for that challenge,” added O’Brien, on his team’s 3-0 week.

It was a huge week for the Cavaliers. At the beginning of the week, the race was anyone’s for the taking, a number of teams jumbled together.

By week’s end, Spalding had taken care of Seton Keough for the second time this season, and then knocked off Mount de Sales and John Carroll back-to-back (both with only one loss coming in) to lay claim to first place.

With an exclamation point from Weiman.
 
Archbishop Spalding 10, Mount de Sales 4
AS        212    500     0  -   10  16  1
MdS     000    013     0  -    4     5  0
Nescio and Catucci; Whitehead, Steaffel (4), Fioretti (5) and Marks.
2B: AS – Bell, Weiman, Bates; MdS – Prince, Marks. 3B: AS – Weiman, Nescio.

Archbishop Spalding 3, John Carroll 0
JC     000       000     0  -   0  0  0
AS     012       000     x  -   3  8  0
Novak and Lowenstein; Weiman and Straitz.
3B: AS – Weiman, Straitz.