By Michael Letendre

BRISTOL – Over its past couple games, one bad inning has foiled the efforts of the Bristol Eastern baseball team.

The Lancers have been able to put runs on the board – five apiece against both Lewis Mills and Platt over their last two contests – but both those efforts resulted in defeats.

However, against Maloney on Wednesday afternoon, Eastern pitcher Jaydon Churchill, and a stingy defensive effort by the entire Lancers’ squad, never let the Spartans enjoy a big scoring frame.

Churchill was simply sensational, striking out 11 batters in six innings of work, while Eastern popped off for four runs in the second stanza as the Kingstreeters defeated Maloney by a 5-2 final from Clem J. Roy Field on the campus of Bristol Eastern in a CCC South bout.   

The Lancers improved to 3-5 overall – breaking a three-game losing streak – as pitching and defense came to the forefront.

Churchill gave up just two runs on six hits, allowed one walk while hitting two batters along the way.

But none of those free passes came back to score as Churchill, who buckled down in every pressure filled situation, retired eight of the final nine batters he faced as Eastern built a three-run edge, never letting it slip away.

“To be honest, he hasn’t pitched great in his other two outings,” said Eastern coach Steve Gaudet of Churchill. “But today, boy, did he pitch. And he got better as the game went on. He started getting ahead, one ball and two strike counts on almost on every batter. He just competed.”

And the game could have gotten away from Eastern in the second inning as Maloney (5-5) wrangled up three hits but did not score.

In the bottom half of the second, Eastern sent nine batters to the plate, etched up three hits, three walks and two sacrifices – resulting in four runs to secure a 4-0 cushion, never looking back.

“We talked all day yesterday in practice about one inning is killing us and the little things are hurting us,” said Gaudet. “We’re leaving too many guys on base. Today, I thought we did a very good job with bunts, with sacrifices flies. We just did the little things and produced when we needed to get those runs against a very good team.”

Churchill shinned offensively, going 2-for-4 with a triple, two runs scored and two RBI while Ben D’Amato was 2-of-3 with a double and a run scored.

In left field, D’Amato assisted on a huge second inning putout and nearly repeated the feat later in the game.

That 7-6-5 play to open the second stanza helped keep things scoreless and then D’Amato dropped in a double to open the bottom half of the tilt.

“He’s been hitting the ball like a machine right now,” said Gaudet of D’Amato. “He makes every play in the outfield. He misplayed one [ball] I think this year and that’s about it. Every other play he makes. He’s just an athlete that knows how to play baseball.”

To open the second, Maloney’s Joziah Gonzalez belted a double to deep left, attempting to take third base.

But D’Amato fired the ball into Cole Latko at shortstop who zipped it to third base as Gonzalez was tagged out – generating a huge first out and cutting a potential rally short.

The Spartans continued to attack as David Stimpson (2-for-2) singled to left, Jack Fitzgerald walked and when DH Zack Burdacki (2-for-3, RBI) slipped in a hit, the bases were juiced.

But a huge 4-6-3 double play ended the inning with Maloney failing to score as Eastern stepped to the plate of the scoreless game.

D’Amato drilled a bomb to right for a two-base hit while Owen Myers walked to put two on with no outs.

Conor Cyr bunted the duo over and Conor McCormick belted a sac fly to center, plating D’Amato, to make it a 1-0 game.

From there, Latko earned a base-on-balls and Churchill then slammed a ball to center for a base hit – scoring Myers and Latko – to make it a 3-0 push.

And finally, Elliot Norris singled to left to score Churchill and through two completed innings, it was a 4-0 game in Eastern’s favor.

Maloney’s Tyler Duffy doubled to open the third, later scoring on a botched pickoff attempt at third base, and in the fourth, Stimpson singled, stole second base and scored on a Burdacki base hit to left as the visiting aggression chopped the score in half, 4-2.

But in the bottom of the fourth, Eastern got one of those runs back.

With one gone, Churchill tripled deep to left and when Norris grounded out at shortstop, the lead runner sprinted home on the throw to first base.

The throw to the plate was a good one but the Maloney catcher never secured the ball as Churchill safely tagged the dish with the RBI tally making it a 5-2 game in the Lancers’ favor.

Churchill stayed in the groove, fanning the side in the fifth and even as he plunked Stimpson with a one-out pitch in the sixth, the Eastern pitcher struck out batter’s number ten and eleven to end the inning as the home team still led by three.

And to save the game, Ryan Maglio came into pitch in the seventh – going 1-2-3 with two Ks – as Eastern picked up a huge 5-2 win, seizing a little momentum with a rematch against Northwest Catholic on the docket Friday from Muzzy Field (3:45 p.m.).

“The other day against Platt, we outhit them 10-4, just had one bad inning and walked a few too many guys,” said Gaudet. “But today, it was a complete team effort. Everyone did something and it kind of brought us together.”

Bristol Eastern Baseball – CCC South Showdown  

BRISTOL EASTERN 5, MALONEY 2 

from Clem J. Roy Field, Bristol

Maloney (5-5)                        001 100 0 – 2 6 1 

Bristol Eastern (3-5) 040 100 x – 5 7 2 

WP: Jaydon Churchill (Bristol Eastern); LP – Raf Rodriguez (Maloney); S – Ryan Maglio

Maloney Batting 

2B – Joziah Gonzalez, Tyler Duffy

3B – None 

HR – None  

Bristol Eastern Batting 

2B – Ben D’Amato 

3B – Jaydon Churchill 

HR – None 

Records: Bristol Eastern 3-5 overall; Maloney 5-5 

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