By Trevor Dugan
Chaminade defeated Holy Trinity 8-0 Wednesday afternoon at Cantiague Park in the second game of a three game set. St. John’s commit Andrew Caramico led the way for the Flyers, pitching five shutout innings while his offense scored at will.
Caramico carved through a formidable Titans’ lineup Wednesday, starting strong with two strikeouts in a scoreless top of the first. Starting opposite the DI bound righty was Holy Trinity sophomore Steven Garneau, who had some misfortune in his half of the first inning.
Garneau retired the first two batters he faced, but an E6 allowed the third batter of the inning, Jake Madsen, to reach. A base hit by Bryce Valls moved Madsen to second, then Brian McGoldrick was able to drive the Flyers’ SS home with an RBI single to give Chaminade an early 1-0 lead.
After surrendering an unearned run in the first, Gardeau led off the top of the second with a line drive single to center field. However, Caramico forced a groundout from the next three batters to render his counterpart’s leadoff hit null and void.
The St. John’s commit enjoyed plenty of support from his offense Wednesday, as the Flyers scored at least once in each of the first five innings. They added two more in the second, when Emlyn Thomas and Noah Kim scored on a two out RBI double by second baseman Christian Bekiers to extend Chaminade’s lead to 3-0 after two.
The Flyers got another shutdown inning from their starter in the top of the third. Caramico sat down the first two batters of the inning before giving up a single to Drew Waters. Next to the plate was SS Jaden Alvarez, Towson commit and Caramico’s travel ball teammate with Next Level. Caramico struck out his former teammate to strand Waters on base and end the inning, pumping his fist and exploding with emotion as he ran off the mound.
Once again Chaminade added to their lead in the bottom of the third, this time forcing Holy Trinity to make a pitching change. CF Valls led the inning off with a solo home run to make it 4-0 Flyers. Next to bat was the DH McGoldrick, who already had an RBI to his name. Not to be outdone by his fellow Flyer, he launched a solo home run of his own to push the Chaminade lead up to 5-0. After the back-to-back jacks, third baseman Nick Sweeney got on base with a single and came around to score on an RBI single by catcher Emlyn Thomas, making it 6-0 Chaminade.
With two outs in the third, Garneau was removed in favor of LHP Jack Lyke. The lefty was able to force the first batter he faced to fly out to center and end the inning, stopping the bleeding and bringing the Titans back to the plate.
Caramico remained untouchable in the fourth, allowing one baserunner to reach on a walk, then quickly ending the inning with a groundball to short and preserving the 6-0 lead for the Flyers.
Chaminade kept pounding in the bottom of the fourth, adding two more runs on another pair of RBI hits. CF Valls got his third hit of the day, an RBI double, to drive in the Flyers’ seventh run, then first baseman Nolan Fernandez drove Valls home for the game’s final run, making it 8-0 Chaminade. Valls would finish the game 3-3 with a HR, two RBI, and two runs scored.
Caramico finished off his scoreless performance in the top of the fifth inning by rolling up a 6-4-3 double play. The big right hander was stellar throughout his five innings of work, and got some much needed run support from his offense. It was a welcome breakout for the Flyers’ bats, coming off of back-to-back losses in which they scored just three total runs.
Lyke delivered the first scoreless inning of the day for Holy Trinity in the bottom of the fifth, retiring the side in order on just 10 pitches. In the top of the sixth, Chaminade replaced Caramico with junior Sebastian LoGuidice, who matched Lyke with a 1-2-3 inning of his own.
RHP Joel Munoz pitched the bottom of the sixth for Holy Trinity, and got his job done by pitching the Titans’ second straight scoreless inning. LoGuidice came back out for the top of the seventh to finish the job for Chaminade, earning the last three outs via strikeout and ending this CHSAA matchup at 8-0.
It was a cathartic victory for Chaminade after losing to Holy Trinity 2-1 and stranding the winning run on base to end the game just a day before. The win improves their record to 3-2 on the season. With the loss, Holy Trinity falls to 1-3-1.
The two catholic schools will meet for their series rubber match Thursday April 2 at Holy Trinity High School.