High school baseball round up

Oxford's Tyler Bostek hitting .400

Balanced attack key to Pirates 12-4 record

Text and photos by Steev Riccardo

The Oxford Pirates rebounded from a tough 4-0 shutout loss to the Northbridge Rams on Wednesday with a dominant 20-3 win over the Sutton Sammies on Thursday in Oxford to complete a 2-1 week and build on their Southern Worcester County League success.

The Pirates were 12-4 overall going into play this week with an 8-4 record in the SWCL. Their losses have come to Shepherd Hill, Millbury, David Prouty, and Northbridge.

Pirates ace lefty Nick Lemay (6-0, 0.00 ERA), who has yet to give a run this year, did not pitch in any of his team’s losses, which was probably a comfort to those teams since the guy has been virtually unhittable. 

In their win over the Sammies, the Pirates exploded for 14 runs in the second inning, which was a season high and “the most runs we've scored in an inning since I've been in Oxford,” said coach Justin Richards, but, no, it’s not a record, he added, “I think the national record is 37 runs set by a team in Mississippi in the late 90s.”

Nick Cardoni and Tyler Bostek (.400) led the 12-hit 20-barrage with a pair of hits, with Dennis Sneade picking up his third win of the season on the mound for the Pirates.

Nick Bates (.450) and Mike Cicero (.417) continue to swing the bat well for the Pirates, who have one of the most dangerous lineups in Central Mass when it comes to manufacturing runs.

The great balance of hitting and pitching has been consistent all year as the Pirates head into the stretch run before the Districts. They have four SWCL games remaining, including a huge rematch against Northbridge on Friday, which should be the game of the week.

(Left) Rams looking for some wins

Shepherd Hill Unravels: The Rams had a tough week, dropping three games and hurting their district chances with tough losses to Leicester, Auburn, and Northbridge.

The Rams continue to get good pitching from Drew Ravenelle and Adam Darling, who both have decent earned-run averages and Brady Ravenelle has been flirting with a .400 batting average all season.

Bryan Stearns has also been consistently hitting around .300 for the 7-8 Rams. The senior hit a pair of bombs for the Rams in the loss against Auburn.

Indians looking for answers; struggles continue: The Bartlett Indians had a pair of tough 1-run losses this week to David Prouty (4-3) and Southbridge (3-2) and watched their record drop to 3-10 overall.

Evan Anderson has been a bright spot both on the mound and at the plate, continuing to hit over .400.  Luis Caro is also hitting near .400 for the Indians, who had 5 SWCL games left on their schedule going into their final two weeks.

Luis Caro, Indians bright spot

One of the Indians’ key match-ups is today at Shepherd Hill.  A win against the Rams would be a big positive for the Webster team.

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