Mount Carmel (6-8 overall) fell to 2-8 in the league.

“After losing an exceptional senior class to graduation
from last year, we needed a lot of guys to step up this year,” said
John Carroll head coach Rob Torres.”  This yearâ??s seniors, and several
young distance guys, lead the way, giving us a total team effort.  The
difference between last yearâ??s tri-championship team and this yearâ??s
outright championship team is last year we had a few exceptional
performances and a few good performances.  This year we had very good
performances in nearly every event.”

Reid
Chenworth hit a towering grand slam home run in the second inning to
give Calvert Hall a 6-0 lead, and the No. 1 Cardinals went on to defeat
No. 8 Mount St. Joseph, 10-4, in MIAA A Conference baseball action,
yesterday in Irvington. Calvert Hall improved to 21-0 overall and 11-0
in-league, and pushed back career win No. 500 for Gaels’ Coach Dave
Norton to another day.
 
St. Joe started the day in a four-way
tie for second place along with Archbishop Spalding, Loyola and St.
Paul’s.  A win would have given the Gaels a chance to move up in the
standings and presented Norton, who is in his 25th year as the team’s
field boss, his 500th win.   Instead, Calvert Hall marches on
undefeated and stretches its two year winning streak to 25 consecutive
games.
 
Maybe the milestone was just too much to think about, as
the Gaels uncharacteristically committed six errors in the six-run
loss.  Six errors will hurt just about any team in any game, but
against the No. 15 team in the nation (according to USA Today), six
errors will get you.  Along with 13 basehits, the Cardinals simply had
too many baserunners, and could have scored more runs on this day than
the 10 they posted.
 
After scoring a first inning run on a
throwing error, the Cardinals put up a five-run second to give
themselves a cushion they would maintain til game’s end. The Gaels were
their own worst enemies, allowing five runs after getting two outs. St.
Joe shortstop David Alagna couldn’t handle John Collingsworth’s hard
shot up the middle, allowing Cody Schuchman to score.  But, the damage
was not nearly done yet. With the bases loaded and two out, Chenworth,
who homered in last year’s A Conference final, got ahold of one and
slammed it to the left of the 370-foot sign, in dead center. Grand
slam. Lead, 6-0.
 
When asked about his prodigious clout,
Chenworth said, “I just came up looking for a pitch to drive, and was
able to get ahold of one, and good things happened.”  
 
Even
though it was just the second inning, the 6-0 lead had clearly taken
its toll on the Gaels. Norton called a quick team meeting as his squad
came off the field and lectured them, “Are we going to play today? We
need to go out and get something, one run, two runs, something, and
then go from there.”
 
And the coach’s words of wisdom seemed to
help – for awhile, anyway – as starter Danny Druzgala settled down and
held the Cardinals to just one run over the next three innings, and the
Gael offense did just what Norton asked by putting two runs on the
board in the third. With two on and two outs, a wild pitch moved two
Gaels into scoring position and, after Kevin Taylor missed extra-bases
with a shot down the left-field line that was foul by inches, he got
another chance and lined a frozen rope up the middle to plate the two
runners, pulling St. Joe to within four, at 6-2.
 
After adding
an insurance run in the fifth on another St. Joe throwing error, the
Cardinals added two more in the sixth on a pair of force-outs, making
it 9-2. The Gaels didn’t go quietly, though, as Taylor sliced a two-run
homer to left field in the bottom half, making it 9-4 and giving him a
four-RBI day.
 
Junior right-hander Michael Dillon pitched the
first six innings and got the win for Calvert Hall, improving to 6-0 on
the season. Greg Terry came on to pitch a scoreless seventh. The Hall
played well afield, commiting only one error on the day. Druzgala
didn’t have his best stuff, but pitched a decent game. The St. Joe
defense did him in, however, as the six errors opened the gates for the
Calvert Hall batters, and baserunners, as he got tagged with the loss.
 
Calvert
Hall sweeps the season series, having beaten the Gaels, 7-5, in their
previous meeting. The Cardinals are on a roll as the season winds down.
Coming in, they were 10-0 versus the MIAA, outscoring opponents, 90-31,
and 10-0 versus non-league opponents to the tune of 90-48, a combined
20-0 and 180-79 run advantage. When asked if his players have a hard
time focusing on each game, and not a perfect season or the win streak,
coach Lou Eckerl said, “The coaches make sure we focus on the game at
hand and not look ahead and we just try to outwork the other team, (a
concensus that Chenworth reiterated after the game).”
 
Being the
No. 1 team, every opponent is gunning for you. No team is looking
ahead, everyone is pumped up to play you. And with a perfect season and
25-gane win streak on the line, the next opponent would love to be the
one to knock you off. So, despite their record, there are no easy days
for the Cards.  They host Archbishop Curley (3-7) on Thursday and then
visit No. 2 Archbishop Spalding  (6-4) on Friday.
 
For Mount St.
Joseph (6-5, 12-8), it makes the short drive to Cardinal Gibbons (4-6)
on Thursday and then hosts Gilman (2-7) on Saturday.  Coach Dave Norton
is not thinking about win No. 500 – he knows it will come in due time.
If the Gaels can get back to more characteristic “fundamental
baseball,” the players will soon be sharing that milestone with him,
maybe even by week’s end.
 
Calvert Hall 10, Mount St. Joseph 4
CH    150 012 1 –  10 13 1
MSJ  002 002 0 –   4 5 6
Dillon, Terry (7) and Collingsworth; Druzgala, Tokosch (6) and Kiehne. 2B: CH-Blair, Lingerman. HR: CH-Chenworth; MSJ-Taylor.

Severn 9, McDonogh 8
Goals: S-Elsmo 4, Kirkup 2, D’Ambrogi, Staines, Rowe; McD-Feinberg 4, Zink, Curran, James, Sartory.
Assists: S-Elsmo 2, D’Ambrogi 2, Loetz; McD-Feinberg, James, Sartory.
Saves: S-Plavner 16; McD-Fiorito 10.
Half: Severn, 5-4.

Both
teams are off to the University of Pennsylvania this weekend to compete
in the Penn Relays and will square off again next month, at Calvert
Hall, during the MIAA Championship meet.

St. Mary’s 12, Saints Peter & Paul 4
SM 041 023 2 – 12 10 2
SPP 300 010 0 – 4 7 2
Stewart,
Tarlaian(6) and Henry; Pavola, Johnston(4) and Kerner. 2B: SM-Poretz,
Kelly, Sargent; SPP-McDermott, Johnson. HR: SM-Poretz, Kelly;
SPP-Harrison.

Calvert Hall (11-0) continues to lap the
field at the top of the A Conference standings, but Loyola, St. Paul’s
and Spalding have an interesting race brewing for second-place, as all
three stand at 7-4 in the conference.  St. Joe is just one game back at
6-5.

After jumping on top, 2-0, in the opening inning, the
Warriors (2-4, 2-4) scored eight times in the top of the second to
seize full control of the contest.  They then added three more in the
third and eventually ended the game, via the run rule, after five
innings.