Kelly, Carroll shake off slow start to down O’Hara

MARPLE >> After surrendering two runs in the first inning Wednesday afternoon, Chris Altopiedi and Archbishop Carroll’s other veteran leaders convened a huddle.

There was no reason Carroll should’ve surrendered that first-inning two-spot to Cardinal O’Hara, was the message, and no reason why they couldn’t erase the deficit.

“It was just basically the fact that we’re a lot better team than the way we’ve played so far,” the first baseman said. “The first inning, we didn’t come out awake, and it was a couple guys in the dugout saying, ‘we need to wake up. We’re a lot better than what we’re doing.’”

One of the youngest voices in the dugout was junior starter James Kelly, who announced his presence on the mound just as loudly.

Kelly twirled a masterful complete game, striking out nine and allowing just two unearned tallies in a 4-2 Catholic League win.

Kelly surrendered just three hits and walked one. He allowed two runs in the first thanks to a dropped infield popup and a Jimmy Beaky RBI single in an inning that should’ve ended.

Kelly’s 99th pitch of the night was a hot comebacker off the bat of Jim White that the hurler reached to his left to snare and underhand to first base for the final out.

“I was just locating my fastball well,” Kelly said. “I was throwing them off a little bit with a curveball every now and then. I knew if I could throw strikes, I could get in their head and keep pounding strikes in.”

Kelly (3-1) saved his best for last. His mix of a hard fastball and tight curve induced 20 swings-and-misses by Lions bats, seven in the final inning. He blew away pinch-hitter Kevin Sessa and Luke Sprague before getting White in a succinct seventh.

James Kelly ends it with a snag. 3 hits, 9 Ks and a 4-2 win got @ACBaseball16 over Cardinal O’Hara pic.twitter.com/DzJ3TuJ7gS

— Matthew De George (@sportsdoctormd) April 27, 2016

It took a little while for Carroll (3-7, 2-5) to get its bats to stir, sparked by Altopiedi. He led off the second with a single off Luke Zimmerman, then capitalized on Beaky airmailing a throw to third base on Kyle Callahan’s bloop single to plate a run.

Altopiedi started the fourth inning by beating out an infield single. Nick Zambella singled, and Altopiedi’s pinch-runner Evan Lake scored the go-ahead run on a Chris Grill sacrifice fly.

“It was basically just come ready to hit the first pitch that’s a strike,” Altopiedi said. “Come up ready to hit the ball hard. … And when we hit the ball hard, they’re going to make mistakes and we need to take advantage of that, which we did today.”

Kevin Downs, another of the Patriots who spoke up, backed it with his bat, clubbing a double through the left-center gap, stealing third and scoring on Trip Shoemaker’s groundout in the third.

Zimmerman otherwise performed well in his first appearance of the season. Limited to designated hitting duty by a leg injury, Zimmerman pitched into the seventh. The sophomore lefty allowed six hits, four runs (two earned) and struck out seven.

“I think the first batter, I was a little nervous,” Zimmerman said. “But once I settled in, I was feeling good. We got two runs in the first, I settled down a little bit and went from there.”

Zimmerman supplied two of the three hits for O’Hara (6-6, 4-4), the Lions’ only base runner after the first inning. He doubled down the right-field line in the third, but Kelly struck out the next two batters and got Sprague to fly out to center to strand him at third. Zimmerman singled with two outs in the sixth, but a nifty play by shortstop Sean Lawley up the middle ended the frame.

Two O’Hara errors cushioned Carroll’s lead in the seventh, not that Kelly needed the extra margin.

For two teams mired in the middle of a difficult Catholic League, Wednesday represents an important lesson. O’Hara has had impressive wins this season, against the likes of St. Joseph’s Prep and Bonner & Prendergast. But this loss is a warning of what can happen when the intensity wanes.

Carroll, meanwhile, is looking to pivot from a slow start. Wednesday’s win is the kind of result the young Patriots can point to as concrete proof that the struggles are behind them

“This is a game that I think we really saw as a turning point, coming out aggressive,” Altopiedi said. “We came out, besides that first inning, we won that game in all aspects. We were better in every way, and we need to keep doing that going forward.”

Also in the Catholic League:

Bonner & Prendergast 3, Conwell-Egan 2 >> Evan Raiburn tossed a complete game, scattering three hits and striking out seven, and he helped offensively with the game-winning sac fly in the sixth inning.

Steve Furman doubled among his three hits, and Tim Dougherty had two hits and a two-run single in the first for Bonner (8-2, 5-2).