ST. MARY'S & FRIENDS PREVAIL IN OPENING ROUND OF 'B' TOURNAMENT

It has not been the the type of baseball season St. Mary's had projected following its run to the MIAA B Conference championship one year ago, but the Saints have rebounded from severe adversity to return to the post-season and, yesterday, kicked off their playoff drive with an impressive 9-1 road win at Park.

Senior right-handed pitcher John Stewart dominated in this outing, giving up only three hits while striking out four. The offensive was led by Ed Galligan, who went 2-for-3 with a double and a walk.  In addition, Chris Ochall was 2-for-2 with a walk, Tony Izzi was 2-for-3 with two doubles and two RBI and Jordan King went 1-for-2 with a homerun, a walk and two RBI.

The victory advances St. Mary's (13-10), the third-seed in the Black Division of the B Conference into a second-round match-up with St. Vincent Pallotti (16-5), the top seed from the Black Division, this afternoon at Panther Park in Laurel.  The Panthers had an opening round bye, as did Boys' Latin (17-5), the winner of the Red Division.

Yesterday's other opening round game pitted Chapelgate Christian (9-7), the third seed from the Red Division against the Black's second-seed, Friends (16-10), and the game turned into an epic pitching duel, which the host Quakers captured, 2-1, in nine innings.

Wick Eisenberg (2.00 ERA) of Friends and Matt Siggins (1.56 ERA) of Chapelgate matched each other pitch-for-pitch as the game remained scoreless through five innings, before Chapelgate finally broke through with a single run in the sixth, as junior Josh Sacks doubled and came into score on a RBI single off the bat of senior Stephen Hammett.

The Yellowjackets took that lead to within three outs of a victory, but the Quakers tied the game in the seventh on a RBI base hit off the bat of catche Leland Nislow.

Both starters remained on into the ninth and Eisenberg actually appeared to grow stronger, as he cruised through a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two.  Siggins, however, gave up a leadoff single to Austin Lasky in the bottom of the ninth and he promptly stole second base, with Kelly Dayton at the plate for the Quakers.  Siggins got ahead in the count, at 0-2, but gave Dayton something he could handle, on the next pitch, and the junior center-fielder delivered a base-hit to right, producing Lasky with the winning run.

The win sends Friends to Boys' Latin this afternoon for the other winners' bracket game in this double elimination tournament.

Park and Chapelgate will get the day off today, but both will be back in action tomorrow.  The Bruins will meet the loser of the Friends/Boys' Latin contest, while Chapelgate will take on the St. Mary's/Pallotti loser.

Because of the rain postponements earlier in the week, the tournament will also be in play on Saturday, with the Winners' Bracket final and an elimination game between the winners of tomorrow's elimination games.  On Monday, the final elimination game will take place, setting the stage for Wednesday's finals at Ripken Stadium (4:00 pm).  If the finals go to two games, the secon game will also be at Ripken Stadium, on Thursday.