Sports

Cardinals take down Wildcats

By Kameron Towle
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CLAREMONT – Stevens baseball welcomed Fall Mountain in what is now an interdivisional rivalry, and the Cardinals defended their home field, beating the Wildcats 10-0 in six innings Wednesday night at Barnes Park.

For Stevens, it was the combination of their offense coming alive in innings three through six, and the consistent arm that senior Derrick Stanhope provided on the mound.

“Derrick did a fantastic job for us today… if he throws the ball like that I think we can be in some games,” said Stevens head coach Paul Silva.

In his six-inning complete-game shutout, Stanhope struck out 7 and allowed 4 hits and just 1 walk.

On offense, the Cardinals put together 12 hits and walked 5 times to have the bases occupied all evening.

After two scoreless innings, Stevens put three runs on the board in the bottom of the third on a 2-RBI groundout from Josh Stithen and an RBI-double by Cam Macia. They went up 4-0 in the fourth with an RBI from Stanhope.

In the fifth, Ty Bonneau scored on a passed ball and Stithen scored after being caught in a pickle between third and home on an overthrow that went into left field.

To put the game away, Stevens rallied for four runs in the sixth. Owen Taylor had an RBI triple, Jarrett LaPointe had an RBI single, and Macia’s 2-RBI single served as the dagger.

Macia (three hits) and Stithen (two hits) each had 3 RBIs on the day and Bonneau was 2-for-4 with 2 runs.

“They just hit the ball all over the place,” said FM head coach Tom Boudro.

“We put the ball in play. We have some tough games coming up,” said coach Silva. “If we can put the ball in play the way we did tonight then we have a chance.

“Anytime you can hit the ball and get a win it’s a morale boost. Fall Mountain is a good team. We happened to get them today but we usually have really close games.”

For Fall Mountain, who was missing a couple key parts due to vacation, their four singles came from Curtis Hosley, Lucien Hagland, Ethan Peltier, and Hayden Chandler. Carter Smith started on the hill and went 4 1/3 innings for FM, and Chandler finished the game off.

FM’s Isaiah Silva made a few great plays in centerfield filling in for Owen Marandino, and the Wildcats were playing just a step behind the Cardinals until the last couple innings.

“We’re starting to put it together,” said coach Boudro. “There’s a lot of hope for this team… we just gotta get things clicking and get everyone back on the same page.”

FM has now been ten-run ruled twice, but they came against a D-II opponent in Stevens and perhaps the best team in D-III in Belmont. The Wildcats drop to 1-4, with their lone-win coming at Newport on April 16th. They will head to Monadnock on Friday.

Stevens now has two wins in a row after the win over Plymouth on Friday. They move to 2-2 and will host ConVal Friday night under the lights at 7 p.m.

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