Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hughes’ gem helps top-ranked Macs advance
EAST WHITELAND » It took a masterful complete-game pitching performance by freshman Jason Hughes, some timely late hitting and some flawless work defensively for the Immaculata baseball squad to begin the 2022 postseason with a 2-1 triumph Wednesday over visiting Marymount (Va.) in the opener of the Atlantic East Conference Playoffs.
The Mighty Macs were outhit 10-4, but manufactured a couple runs and, perhaps most importantly, did not surrender a single walk or commit any errors as the top seed of the double elimination tournament.
“In a game this, free bases are usually a tell-tale sign of who is going to win the game,” said first-year head coach Josh Copskey. “(Marymount) kicked it around early in the game, and we scratched one (run) across.
“We played clean, which is nice.”
Now 26-12 overall, Immaculata will host No. 2 Cabrini on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. The Cavaliers (30-9) trounced third-seeded Gwynedd-Mercy 22-2 on Wednesday. As the league’s regular season champs, IU will now play host to the rest of the tournament,
which will conclude on Friday. The winner will receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III Tournament.
“You always like to have home field advantage, whether it is corn hole, baseball or football – you name it,” Copskey said.
A native of Warminster, Hughes needed 127 pitches to wrap up the win against the Saints (27-14), who are seeded fourth. He scattered 10 hits, struck out six batters – including three of the last four he faced – and issued no freebies.
“I had my fastball working for me from the jump, but I struggled with the secondary (pitches) a little bit,” Hughes explained. “In the later innings, I ended up figuring out my secondary’s and that helped me get stronger as the innings went on.
“Plus, I wanted to be here and I wanted to win this for my team, and that kept my adrenaline up the whole game.”
It was a taut pitcher’s duel from the start, pitting the 6-foot-2 Hughes with Marymount lefty Drew Mead. Immaculata didn’t register a base hit through six full innings, but Hughes and the IU defense kept the Mighty Macs in it.
In the seventh, the Macs broke a 1-1 deadlock when junior catcher Josh Crowding led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice, went to third on an infield hit by sophomore Steve Theisen, and scored on a sacrifice fly by junior Jason Smiley.
“We preach one pitch at a time, and if things don’t go your way (at the plate) we try to flush it and get ready for the next pitch,” Copskey said. “Our guys went out and competed for what I thought was all nine innings and for every pitch.”
Hughes allowed a single in each of the final two innings, but fanned four of the final seven he faced to close it out. Mead allowed just four hits, but they all came in the final two innings.
“Jason threw very well,” Copskey said. “(Marymount’s) guy (Mead) was out there competing just like Jason was, so that’s when you have to get some things done even when you are not swinging the bats as well as you’d like to.”
A case in point: the Macs scratched out a run in the second inning with a fielder’s choice, a twobase throwing error and a passed ball. And it all happened with two out. But the Saints tied it with a run in the fourth on two hits.
“I have complete and total confidence in my offense to get the job done,” Hughes said. “It’s great playing with these guys because they are always ready to fight.”
Senior centerfielder Frank Margiotta made two spectacular plays: a diving effort to rob a potential hit in the fifth inning, and an over the shoulder catch at the warning track to open the eighth.
“It was fundamental baseball in every aspect today. We stayed in the game mentally for all nine innings,” Hughes said.
The Macs also had an added bit of motivation as Marymount topped Immaculata in the Atlantic East Final in 2021.
“It’s always good to take the first game of a tournament like this,” Copskey added. “I personally don’t have any ties to what happened last season, but I’m sure the guys, in the back of their minds, remember that they lost in the finals to Marymount.”