Mathewson McCarthy
Major West Braves win trio of games

The Major West Braves of Mathewson McCarthy recently defeated the Cardinals, Red Sox, and Marlins.

Braves 16, Cardinals 0

The Braves opened the season by blanking the Cardinals with a powerful offensive display.

Sam Scime brought slammed a bases loaded double that cleared the bases and scored on an overthrow from the outfield. Scime also slammed a two-run home run, finished with seven RBIs and scored two runs. Tom Krasinski had a single and double with four RBIs and two runs. David Costanzo was perfect at the plate with three singles, two RBIs, and three runs.

Mark Glieco was 2 for 3 with two runs scored. Jeremy Zgoda, Joey Couche, and Connor McKenna added hits and runs and Richard Patti and Scott Kaempf scored for the Braves.

The Cardinals threatened in every inning with David Krasinski and Daniel Carosi hitting doubles and Pendleton smacking a single.

Braves' pitchers Costanzo and Krasinski held the Cardinals to three hits while fanning nine.

Cardinal pitchers Ricky Procknal, Nolan Burch, and Nick Courtney recorded five strikeouts.

Braves 12, Red Sox 8

The Braves had their hands full with a tough Red Sox team.

The Braves went up 6-2 after 1.5 innings, but the Red Sox plated six runs in their half of the second to take the lead.

The Braves came back with three in the third and another three in the fifth to take a 12-8 lead.

The Red Sox threatened in the bottom of the sixth when Stephen Taraboletti drilled a two-strike pitch to center for a double to lead off the inning.

With one out, A.J. Aquilino hit a fly ball to right that looked like extra bases, but Braves' right fielder John Carroll made an outstanding catch and fired to second to double off the runner and end the game.

The Braves were led by Tom Krasinski (single, double, four runs, six RBIs), David Costanzo (3 for 3, run, two RBIs), Mark Glieco (single, four runs), Joey Couche (triple, single, two RBIs), Richard Patti (single, run) and Connor McKenna (single, run, two RBIs).

Standouts for the Red Sox were Aquilino (two hits, two runs, RBI), Jimmy Honsberger (double, two runs, two RBIs), and Matt McComber (single, two RBIs).

Costanzo, McKenna, Krasinski, and Patti recorded 11 strikeouts for the Braves. That total was matched by Red Sox pitchers Honsberger, Francisco McGowan, Dante Sparcino, and Mc- Comber.

Braves 15, Marlins 3

The Braves jumped out to an early lead against the Marlins and never looked back.

Tom Krasinski led the Braves' offense with four doubles, three runs and five RBIs. Other contributors for the Braves were David Costanzo (two hits, two runs, three RBIs), Richard Patti (two hits, three runs, RBI), Connor McKenna (two hits, two runs, two RBIs), John Carroll (hit, run, two RBIs), and Jeremy Zgoda (hit, three runs, RBI).

The Marlins were led by Brett Baker (hit, two runs), Ken Stuber (hit, run), Adam Liscavage (hit, two RBIs) and Alex Rotella (hit).

Braves' infielder Adam Demer made two excellent defensive plays, one at second to help shut down a Marlin rally and another at third to save a run.

Braves' pitchers Costanzo, Krasinski, Zgoda, and Patti together tossed a four-hitter and struck out 14. Austin Baker, Stuber, Liscavage and Brett Baker set down ten Braves on strikes.

Red Sox 15, Brewers 8

The Red Sox made it two straight wins with a hard-fought victory over the Brewers Wednesday evening.

The Red Sox were paced by the hitting of Francisco McGowan with three hits while scoring three runs and Jimmy Honsberger's two hits and three runs.

Ryan Johnson had a great game for the Red Sox recording a solid base hit and scoring a run. Honsberger, Mc- Gowan, Dante Sparcino and Matt McComber teamed up to record 11 strikeouts through six innings.

Austin Abbarno and Cole Bogacz each had two hits and scored two runs a piece for the Brewers.

Red Sox 15, Yankees 8

The Red Sox came to play early Saturday morning posting a win over the Yankees.

The Red Sox scored seven times in the first inning powered by Clay Tuyn and Stephen Taraboletti's hitting.

Dante Sparcino provided the big blow with a three-run home run in the fourth inning and pitched a tremendous fifth, recording three strikeouts.

A.J. Aquilino pounded out three hits, scored twice and provided the defensive gem of the game with a diving catch at third base. Justin Downey and Sammy Burke each had triples, pacing the Yankees to a three-run fourth.

The pitching of Jimmy Honsberger, Matt McComber, Franciso McGowan and Sparcino proved too much as they recorded 14 strikeouts.

Major East

Royals 9, Athletics 8

After allowing four runs to the Athletics in the top of the last inning, the Major East Royals scored two runs of their own to end the game after the two-hour time limit and securing the win.

The Royals used two walks and two passed balls to score the game tying and winning runs.

The A's took an early lead as Alex Wapniewski drew a walk and came home on Jordan Honsberger's shot to third. The Royals answered with three runs of their own as hits by Brenden Chambers (double), Robert Paslaqua and Timmy Coulter all plated runs.

The A's tied it up in the top of the next inning as Alex Achenbach and David Panfil drew walks and came home on wild pitches. Tommy Weisansal's blast to right center set up the go-ahead run as Ryan Czerwinski's sacrifice grounder to third brought Weisansal home.

Matt Pragel took the mound for the Royals and immediately shut down the heart of the A's attack. The Royals fed off the pitching of Pragel to score three more runs in the bottom of the third. Brian Bookbinder led off with a walk and was driven home by Chambers' second hit of the day. Chambers and Coulter scored later that inning to give the Royals a 7-3 lead.

Joe Desotelle drew a leadoff walk for the A's and scored on Matt Mendola's hit up the middle. The Royals went down in order to leave the game at the end of fourth with the Royals holding onto a three-run lead.

The A's exploded in the top of the fifth and last inning with four runs to take the lead. Key hits by Wapniewski and Adam Panfil did the damage for the go-ahead lead. Bookbinder and Czerwinski scored the winning runs in the bottom of the last inning for the Royal win. Andrew Zgoda and Richard Schwartz played outstanding defense for the Royals with Matt Jungier anchoring the plate. Pragel got his first Major East win on the mound to lead the Royals to their second consecutive win.

Royals 10, Brewers 4

The Royals pounded out nine runs in the last two innings to overtake the Brewers.

The Royals scored one run in the bottom of the first as Brian Bookbinder led off with a walk, stole second and third, and came home on a passed ball. The Brewers took a 3-1 lead in the top of the third as Greg Weslowski and Jon Castonova drew consecutive walks. Weslowski was thrown out at home by a perfect peg from Rob Paslaqua from center.

Castonova and Shawn Baryani scored as Joey Coppola's hard grounder got through at third and later found the plate when Will Carroll's single dropped in center field.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Royals exploded with five runs off five timely hits. Paslaqua and Timmy Coulter led off with consecutive hits followed by a walk to Ryan Czerwinski to load the bases. Matt Pragel's shot up the gut plated the Royals' first two runs, followed by Andrew Zgoda's two-run shot to right center for a single. Tommy Weisansal's first of two hits then plated Zgoda for the final run of the inning and a 6-3 lead.

Baryani drew a fifth inning walk and came home as Dan Lunadue sent a shot over the centerfielder's head for a double to close the gap to 6-4.

The Royals scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth before time expired. Four consecutive singles by Paslaqua, Coulter, Czerwinski and Pragel did most of the damage as Jake Berke perfectly executed the suicide squeeze for the final run. Pragel picked up his second win on the mound as Coulter got the save. Carroll pitched well for the Brewers as Lunadue had great outings at the plate for the Brewers.

'AAA' Baseball

Cardinals 19, Royals 10

Cardinals 9, Yankees 7

The "AAA" Cardinals won two games last week behind strong pitching, sound defense and clutch hitting.

In the first game, the Cardinals defeated a resilient Royals team, 19-10. Matthew Foster was the star of the game with three hits, including a three-run home run and a bases loaded double for six RBIs.

Nick Valenti, Dylan Walker, Michael Steffan and Foster pitched well in the win.

For the Royals, Nick Sambrone had two hits while Mike Poturalski and Cam Osalkowski each scored two runs. Spencer Crist, Michael Braun, Joshua Paylan, Poturalski and Osalkowski each pitched well in the loss.

In the second game on Saturday, the Cardinals battled the hard-hitting Yankees and hung on for a 9-7 win.

The Cardinals called up John Genau and Mike Woods from "AA" and the two contributed in the win. Genau scored three runs and Woods had a two-run double to break open the game.

The defensive play of the game was made by Sam Canell of the Cardinals. With bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, Cannel fielded a hot shot grounder off the bat of Yankees' Kurt Haummesser which ended a Yankee rally.

John Herman had a key hit for the Cardinals in a five-run third.

The Cardinals received strong pitching from Patrick Irving, Michael Steffan, Shawn Barbalato and Nathan Berke.

The Yankees were led by great pitching from Haummesser, AJ Tallman, Nick Schuler, Spencer Maranto and Nick Maranto.

Ryan Phillips had two hits for the Yankees while Ben Saathoff doubled.