Baseball: Nazareth rallies past St Viator

Ryan Marske was paying attention and it helped him lead No. 6 Nazareth to a 5-3 East Suburban Catholic victory on Saturday over visiting St. Viator in the first game of a doubleheader. The second game was suspended due to a lack of daylight with the score tied at 4 after nine innings. It will be completed on Tuesday afternoon at Nazareth.

``We were keeping pitching charts to help track what pitches (Tim McElroy) was throwing against us,’’ Marske said. ``He’s a great pitcher and he threw me a good curveball. I just adjusted to it.’’

Nazareth (13-1, 1-0) was trailing 3-1 in the fourth inning when Marske stepped to plate for his second at-bat. He struck out looking in his first appearance, but this time the senior designated hitter took McElroy’s pitch over the right field fence to drive in Tim Dalporto to tie the game up.

``That home run just seemed to deflate us,’’ St. Viator’s Cosimo Cannella said. ``This is a big rivalry for us because we know that we have to beat them to win conference.’’

Marske then drove in the winning run in the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly to center that brought Mark Perrone home from third. Kyle Piotrowski followed that with a bases-loaded walk for the final score.

Jake Bartels improved to 3-0 after he settled down to record seven straight outs before giving way to Dominic Purpura who picked up the save with one inning of work.

Andrew Ferrante had a pair of hits and an RBI for St. Viator and Roy Pettingill homered for the Lions (10-6, 0-1).

Cannella was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the first game, but turned it around with a wardrobe change. The senior first baseman forgot his jersey and had to borrow a teammate’s for the first game. After his parents brought his usual number 20 from home, he went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBI in the second game.

``It must’ve been the jersey,’’ Cannella said. ``On the home-run, he hung a change-up and I got a hold of it.’’

The home run came after Nazareth scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 4-2 lead. Cannella’s blast brought the Lions to within one run. Joe Rossi followed that with a double in the right-center gap. Kyle Luthringhausen drove him in with a base-hit to tie the game.

Chris Myjack had a pair of hits and an RBI and pitched seven innings for Viator. Marske started for Nazareth but was pulled with a stomach ache in the second inning. He still picked up a pair of hits. Sean Maloney reached base three times with two hits and a walk.

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