WAKEFIELD — Last year, during its notable 16-4 regular season, the Wakefield Memorial High School baseball team had a number of talented seniors, including pitcher Jack Stromski, who ate up innings and sat down dozens of opponents. Who the team would replace Stromski with this year was a question on the minds of many. The Warriors have had to look no further than the starting pitcher for their most recent game, sophomore Patrick Maloney, who has taken the mound by storm in his first season with the varsity.
Against Watertown on Wednesday, Maloney had a no-hitter going into the 6th inning as he racked up 6 strikeouts and put out as many as 8 Raiders in a row.
Senior captain Andrew Nemec caught for Maloney against Watertown and remarked on his dominance.
“Maloney had a great outing, throwing 75 pitches and 54 for strikes,” said Nemec. “All of his pitches were working and Watertown only managed one hit against him in 5.1 innings.”
Another promising sophomore pitcher, Jackson McGourty, relieved Maloney in the 6th and finished out the 7th inning, which was all that was needed for Wakefield to secure the 11-2 win.
“Our bullpen always comes out ready to go,” Nemec noted.
Maloney and McGourty were the beneficiaries of another explosive offensive effort from the Warriors, with senior captains Cam DePrizio and Jayvith Chea and also Charles and Marc Gagne having multiple hits and RBIs.
Watertown actually got on the board first due to a walk, an error, a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly to make it 1-0 Raiders until the 3rd inning.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Warriors got going. Ethan Faulkner was hit by a pitch and stole second. Nik Dhingra laid down one of his beautiful bunts, moving Faulkner to third. Charles Gagne then singled to center field, scoring Faulkner and tying the game 1-1.
DePrizio hit a screaming, low, line drive along the left field line to open the bottom of the 4th. With DePrizio reaching second, Marc Gagne then flied to deep center and DePrizio tagged and made it to third. Chea next hit a line drive single to score DePrizio.
Chea stole second, Faulkner walked and Dhingra bunted successfully once again, moving the runners over. Charles Gagne then singled to right field to score Chea and Faulkner and up the tally to 4-1 Wakefield.
In the bottom of the 5th, the Warriors really opened things up. Aidan Bligh reached on a hard-hit ground ball and promptly stole second.Jack Pennacchia walked and Alex Colarusso came in to pinch run for him. DePrizio was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Marc Gagne then hit a hard grounder up the middle, scoring Bligh and Colarusso. DePrizio scored on a wild pitch and Chea then knocked Gagne in with a single to left.
The Warriors still were not finished in the 5th. With Chea on first, Faulkner was hit by a pitc, and Dhingra walked to load the bases. Nicolo Labieniec then hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Chea, and the Warriors ended the inning with a 9-1 advantage.
In the top of the 6th, two Watertown players reached base and finally got their first hit against Maloney. Maloney received quite the ovation as he walked off the mound and was replaced by McGourty. Watertown was able to notch its second run when the next batter singled, but McGourty then shut the Raiders down and got out of the inning.
The Warriors added two more runs in the bottom of the 6th. Pennacchia, Deprizio and Marc Gagne hit three consecutive singles to load the bases, then Michael Yianacopolus, hitting for Chea, got his own single, scoring Pennacchia and DePrizio.
McGourty had a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the 7th, and the Warriors sewed up their fifth win of the season.
“We have come out focused recently and are starting to pull together into a very competitive group,” Nemec noted.
Wakefield will finish out the April Vacation contests with a game against Wilmington today, 2 p.m. at home and will hope to keep the winning streak alive next week with three games against league rivals, Winchester, Reading and Lexington.