by Alejandro Danois

Top-ranked Calvert Hall College bounced back from last weekend’s loss to Malvern Prep (PA), routing 19th ranked Mount St. Joseph, 13-2, in a MIAA A Conference contest at Carlo Crispino Stadium in Towson Wednesday afternoon.
    
Cardinals senior Kevin Lingerman overcame a shaky start, pitching five strong innings and surrendered only two hits.  After giving up a single to the Gaels’ Derek Buehler with one out in the top half of the first, Ryan Kemp crushed a Lingerman fastball that easily cleared the centerfield scoreboard, putting Mount St. Joseph’s ahead.

“Kevin gave up a good pitch to Kemp, he got the ball over the plate a little too much, and he hit it out,” said Cardinals coach Lou Eckerl. “Kevin’s a battler, he’s never going to give up and he’s going to keep us in every ballgame. I felt confident that we were still in the game there and we weren’t going to give up just because we gave up two runs on a home run.”

“I wasn’t hitting my spots early, was a little wild in the first inning and threw a fastball right down the middle,” said Lingerman. “Ryan took a hold of it and that kind of fired us up a little bit.”

Calvert Hall (17-5 overall, 9-1 in MIAA A) answered right back in the bottom half of the inning as sophomore Patrick Fitzgerald led off with a single. After junior Patrick Blair’s single sailed through the right infield gap, senior Brooks Rothschild stepped to the plate with runners on the corners.

On a 1-0 pitch, Blair attempted to steal second, but Gaels’ catcher Kirby Riehl overthrew second base, allowing Fitzgerald score. After Rothschild walked on four consecutive pitches, Greg Bryant singled in another run, knotting the score at 2-2.

After Mount St. Joseph (9-8-1, 3-6) pitcher Tommy Miller walked Michael Dillon loaded the bases, Joe Roback’s single up the middle scored two more runs for Calvert Hall. Lingerman found his groove, retiring seven straight batters before Nick Caddick lifted a single into the left field gap in the top of the fourth.

“Kevin did a good job and had his breaking pitch in there that kept them off balance,” said Eckerl. “Besides the home run, he did a nice job keeping runners off the bases. We knew that Kevin was going to keep us in the game so we just had to take our time and scratch back into the game, which we did.”

“I knew my team had my back and I started to hit my spots,” said Lingerman. “Our defense was making plays, we pulled together as a team, started getting hits and called it a day after that.”

The Cardinals offense added four more in the second and five more in the bottom of the fourth before Lingerman closed the door in the top of the fifth.

“We played good defense, hit the ball extremely well today and scored plenty of runs so that was a pretty good game for us,” said Eckerl.

Bryant led Calvert Hall’s offensive surge, going 3-for-3 with three RBI. Every Cardinals batter managed a hit in the game, collecting 13 total.

Calvert Hall 13, Mount St. Joseph 2

Mount St. Joseph  200 00-2 4 3                 
Calvert Hall           440 5x-13 13 1   

Miller, Schenk (4) and Kraska; Lingerman and Sawyer. 2B: MSJ-Alagna; CH-Bryant, Lingerman. HR: MSJ-Kemp.