Late Inning Offense Propels Archbishop Carroll Over Marathon

One of the biggest questions in sports for years has been if it’s more important to start a game off strong or end it strong. Chances are the Archbishop Carroll Bulldogs were asking themselves this on the drive home tonight, as the team rebounded from no runs and just one hit in the first four innings to score seven over the final two frames en route to upending the Marathon Dolphins by a 7-1 final score.

Starting things off in the three-run fifth inning for Archbishop Carroll was Jimmy Heyworth, who doubled with one out and was joined on the base paths by Rey Gonce after a five-pitch walk. Heyworth then scored on a wild pitch during Lizandro Echemendia’s at-bat, a plate appearance that saw the left-fielder drive in the team’s second run with an RBI single. Echemendia came around to score the team’s third run when Sal Lorenzo singled right after his teammate reached base.

Archbishop Carroll then added four in the sixth, two of those runs coming off the bat of Heyworth’s bases-loaded hit to score Chris Fernandez and Ryan Pereda. The other two runs came home after Gonce hit a sac fly and Jonathan Leon grounded out for an RBI. Pitching and staying in the game long enough to directly benefit from the offensive explosion was Alex Gonzalez, who struck out three and threw 62 percent of his pitches for strikes. Gonzalez also threw first-pitch strikes to 17 of the 21 men he faced before Alfredo Silva relieved the senior left-hander to start the seventh inning.

Starting for Marathon was Frank Gonzalez, who pitched very well before running into trouble in the fifth inning as he dealt first-pitch strikes to 16 of 28 batters. Jack Hill drove in the team’s only run with a sixth-inning RBI single, but only three other Dolphins recorded hits on Wednesday night.

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