Xaverian holds off Walpole
Starter Rhodes allows just one run
Xaverian baseball coach Gerry Lambert would have been perfectly happy to get five quality innings out of Patrick Rhodes.
The junior right-hander had other ideas.
Rhodes allowed one run and three hits over six innings as the Hawks (5-1) defeated Walpole 2-1 in a nonleague contest Monday morning. The win was the fifth straight for Xaverian since a season-opening loss to Plymouth North, but Lambert was more interesting in talking about Rhodes.
“Patrick was at 58-59 pitches after three innings in his start last week and I think he’d be the first to admit he wasn’t efficient,” Lambert said. “(Today) he was much better, 85 pitches through six innings. I was thinking he gets to the fifth and allows a baserunner, I was going to go get him, but he said he felt good.”
Rhodes had to be solid because his counterpart at Walpole, Mikey St. Martin, was just as good. The junior right-hander went 5 1/3 innings and allowed two hits and both runs were unearned.
Xaverian got on the board first in the last of the third, benefitting from some uncharacteristic defensive play by the visiting Timberwolves (3-2). Jack O’Neil led off with a single and went to second on an errant pickoff throw. He then stole third and scampered home when the ensuing throwing skipped into left field.
Walpole came right back in the top of the fourth. Ryan Walsh doubled with one out and two batters later, Nick Foynes (2-for-3) delivered an RBI single.
The Hawks scored the game-winning run in the last of the fourth. Charlie Comella led off by reaching second on a dropped fly ball to left. He advanced to third on Luke Douglas’ sacrifice and scored by beating a throw on Nolan Rappoli’s grounder to short.
Lambert went to Walpole native Michael Connolly to start the seventh and the Timberwolves mounted a rally as Foynes and Quinn MacNeil singled with one out. Connolly was able to pitch out of the jam to earn the save.
“A lot of kids might get a little twitchy in a situation like that, but Michael is a pretty calm kid,” Lambert said. “You saw the way he settled down and got the final outs. This is the time of year when you need to see how kids fare in 1-on-1 situations.
“I’m not as worried whether we are 4-3, 5-3 or 5-1 right now. I want to see how we compete in these type of games and I liked what we did.”