Claremont
With the second game tied at 3-3 in the sixth inning, Stevens scored the go-ahead run without the benefit of a hit. Zach O’Brien walked with one out before Henri Bourque’s infield bouncer was thrown into right field in an effort to get O’Brien at second. O’Brien got up from his slide and dashed to third, where the throw to get him there was errant, bringing him home with what proved to be the winning run.
Dylan McNamara led off the top of the seventh for the Tigers with a blast deep into the right-center field gap that Stanhope flagged down on the run, denying the Newport senior extra bases.
Coby Hussey, with two no-hit innings of relief, was the winning pitcher.
The two wins put the hot Cardinals at 11-1, while Newport dropped to 2-8.
The first four innings were controlled by the pitchers, Stevens’ O’Brien and Newport’s McNamara. Stevens, which had only three hits in the game, got a run in the second when O’Brien tripled and scored on Brendan Bean’s infield bouncer. The Tigers tied the game in the fourth when Dom Russell tripled and scored on an error.
Stevens used a walk, a fielder’s choice, a long double by Stanhope and a single by Noah Spaulding to take a 3-1 lead in the fifth. Newport got to O’Brien in the sixth with three straight hits as Russell singled and was doubled home by Brendan Halleck. A single by Cam Ackerman got Halleck to third, and he scored to tie the game on Kyle Fish’s infield out.
McNamara’s complete-game three-hitter included six strikeouts and four walks. Hussey, in his hitless relief stint struck out three.
In the afternoon game, Spaulding tossed a two-hitter and the Cardinals lashed out 14 hits in a game that was called after five innings.
Leading the hit parade was sophomore catcher Bourque, who smacked a two-run homer in the second inning. Spaulding, Drew Grenier, Cody Schoolcraft and Trey Theriault all chipped in with two hits.
“We’ve had some practice days this week and have been working hard on our hitting and taking our at-bats very serious,” Stevens coach Paul Silva said. “When you put the ball in play, good things happen.”
Stevens jumped on Newport starter Kyle Fish for five runs in the first. Fish gave up five hits, but his defense also let him down with three errors in the inning. Theriault had a two-run single in the rally.
Newport committed another error in the three-run third inning that included Bourque’s home run to center field. Newport outfielder Cam Ackerman tried to make a shoestring catch of the ball, but it got under his glove. The hits kept on coming in the third inning as five more Cardinals crossed the plate, two on a Grenier double.
“There have been times this season that we hit the ball well, fielded the ball well and pitched the ball well,” Newport coach Jon Hamel said. “But we just can’t seem to put all three facets of the game together.
“We have no life,” Hamel added after the afternoon game. “We were not motivated. We had no sense of urgency.”
Knuckleballer T.J. Hubert pitched the final two innings for Newport, giving up one run on two hits.
Spaulding, who just threw 47 pitches in the first four innings, lost the plate in the fifth inning as he walked four and gave up a single to J.T. Blaine as Newport scored three times. He threw 31 pitches in that inning alone.