Baseball: Young’s Daniel Villodas shuts down Fenwick

Updated: May 24, 2012 8:02PM

Young’s Daniel Villodas used his curve ball to keep hitters off balance and threw 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball as the Dolphins downed host Fenwick 3-0 in the Class 4A Regional seminfinal Thursday.

Young (21-13) scored all three of their runs in the first inning before Jack Forde (seven hits, five strikeouts, one walk) settled in for the Friars and shut down Young the rest of the way.

“I just tried to keep the ball on the outer portion of the plate and keep my curve ball down in the strike zone,” sadi Villodas, who allowed just five hits and struck out three. “The wind didn’t change my strategy at all. I just tried to stay relaxed, listened to music before the game, and went out and did what I had to do. I’m not known as a strikeout pitcher so my defense really came through with some great plays behind me and I’m proud of them.”

Eugene Tabb singled up the middle on the first pitch of the game, advanced to second on a ground ball out and scored on an RBI-single by Villodas for the only tally the Dolphins would need.

After a fly out, Will Greenberg reached on an error that scored Villodas, Max Blinderman walked and Justin Missner (two hits, double, RBI) drove him home with a base hit.

Fenwick (20-14) threaten to rally in the seventh inning with runners at first and third with two outs, but Tim Quintus came in to replace Villodas and record the final out for the save.

“When Danny Villodas stay’s down and his curve ball is working he does an awesome job of keeping hitters off balance,” Cassidy said. “He has had several good outings for us this season, including a no-hitter against Jones, and he had another one today. We made plays and when we make plays we’re a tough team. We joked around before about what the over/under would be on home runs today, and neither team got one out. Both pitchers did a great job of keeping the ball down hitters were banging the balls into the ground and we just made more plays I guess.

“I know St.Laurence is a good, well-coached team, and I don’t know what happened regarding suspensions with them, but I told our guys I don’t care who they bring, if we play the way we know how to play we’ll play with any team in the state.”

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