MARSTONS MILLS – In his first outing of the season, junior righty Jared Joy was a workhorse on the mound for the Sturgis East Storm baseball team, picking up the complete-game win at the Horace Mann Charter School Field.
Sturgis East righty junior Jared Joy notched his first win of the season as The Storm opened its 2015 campaign in true come-from-behind fashion over rival Sturgis West.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports Photos
Joy struck out five batters in seven innings of work and walked six while scattering six hits in The Storm’s 10-6 victory over rival Sturgis West. His battery mate, freshman catcher Andrew Williams, was spectacular behind the plate in his first-ever varsity game.
“I can’t say enough about him,” first-year head coach John Havey said of the team’s new backstop. “He just did a phenomenal job. He had been nervous all week because he’s just a freshman and had made the varsity.”
Joy also impressed the rookie coach in The Storm’s first win and first game of the 2015 campaign.
“He got stronger as the game went on. He must have thrown like 155 pitches but I was a pitcher so I was on him every inning making sure he was good to go. It was freezing out there. He dug down deep today,” Havey said of his hard-throwing righty.
The home team Sturgis West, though, got on Joy in the second frame for four runs and an early 4-0 lead, thanks in large part to a bases-clearing triple by second baseman Ben Parkin (1-3, 3 RBI), but Joy would afford the Navigators just two more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The early 4-0 lead for West evaporated in the fourth inning when East erupted for eight runs and sent starting pitcher JP LaBarge packing. LaBarge had been spectacular up until the fourth frame, striking out six East batsmen including the side in succession in the second inning. He allowed no hits and no runs and walked none through the first three innings and retired the side 1-2-3 in each.
But in the fourth inning the wheels came off for the host Navigators as The Storm finally solved the LaBarge puzzle with a mix of three big hits and four infield errors en route to an eight-run barrage. Wes Todoroff came on in relief in the midst of the East maelstrom of runs and finally got West out of the jam.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, down 8-4, West first baseman Johnny Ryan breathed life back into the Navigators with a clutch, two-strike triple in the left-centerfield gap to whittle
Sturgis East freshman catcher Andrew Williams was spectacular behind the plate for The Storm in Thursday’s 10-6 win.
Sean Walsh/Capecod.com Sports
the East lead down to two runs at 8-6, but Joy stranded a pair of runners when he got Max O’Hare to fly out to second base.
East tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the top of the fifth inning when Mark Agostinelli led off with a walk and stole second base, then came home on an Andrews’ base-knock that made it 9-6. Joey Colesano followed with a single and then East shortstop Ryan Havey drove him in to make it 10-6.
Havey went 2-4 on the day, as did Kyle Coolidge and Gavin Cooper.
Sturgis East faces Monomoy on the road Friday afternoon, while Sturgis West (0-3) faces South Shore Christian Academy at noon on Saturday (April 11) at Barnstable United Elementary School.
— Sean Walsh is the sports editor for www.capecod.com. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @coachwalshccbm
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