Pace Loses 7-0 To Douglas In Falcon Challenge Opener

Monsignor Pace opened their season like they have the past couple of seasons in the Falcons Nike/OTS Baseball Challenge. The Spartans were hoping to come away with a victory Monday, but it was not to be as they were defeated by Douglas 7-0.

The Spartans had a chance early to change their fortunes, but were unable to capitalize on three walks in the first inning by Douglas starter John Valek. The Eagles ace settled down after the first and threw five more shutout innings to help his team win their opener.

“I had a great pen before the game, and we had a game plan coming in,” said Valek. “We didn’t play well at all last week, and coach stressed that it was the preseason, and that this is where it counts. We wanted to come out and make a statement, and I think we did pretty good. This is only step one, and we still have to make some improvements, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

Offensively for the Eagles, Chris Pannell came up with the spark Douglas has been looking for when he laced a two-out double to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Pannell finished the game 1-for-1 with two walks and two RBI. Three Eagles, Derek Fritz, Dreichler, and Luis Silverio, all had two hits on the day.

On the other side of the field, Pace coach Tom Duffin was expecting more from his guys in the opener, but he understands this is a long season and his team still has two more games left in this tournament to right the ship. One area that was concerning to Duffin was a stretch in the fifth and sixth innings where his batters swung at six straight five straight first pitches down 7-0.

“I don’t mind them being aggressive,” said Duffin. “But when it’s 7-0 we’ve got to do a better job of working the count, especially with a guy that had been in the game for a while and threw a lot of pitches in the first few innings. There’s no question our guys have to do a little better job than that.”

One bright spot for Pace on this day was right-fielder Andrew McCoy. The junior threw out two Douglas runners on the bases, including Fritz at home plate to end the fourth.

Pace will now have a day off before they return to action in the tournament against Miami Sunset on Wednesday. The Spartans will have to beat Sunset and hope for some help in order to win Bracket B and advance to the championship game of the tournament on Friday.

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