Black Knight pitching duo halts Lancers
[attach]1622[/attach]Malvern Black Knights stood tall on the mound in their varsity baseball game against Leaside May 12.
Led by the arms of starter Zak Webster and reliever Luke Ainsworth-Wieb, the east-end school handed Leaside Lancers their first loss of the season, 4-1.
Malvern’s lead knight, coach Rob Salvatore, lauded the duo’s skill.
“It’s all about pitching and that’s what matters,” he said. “Our guys fortunately pitched a great game and they also played huge in some pressure situations, picked off some guys and really generated some outs.”
In the first inning, Webster worked out a few kinks as Leaside’s Steve Edwards started the game with a lead-off double.
Owen Laing would later bring Edwards in on a hot shot up the middle.
But the Lancer’s starting salvo was muted as John King was thrown out stealing home and Scott Hayden was thrown a chair by Webster to end the inning.
Leaside’s Chris Novachis would sit down all three batters he faced, as a small pitching duel was taken into the second.
Webster struck out all three batters, giving his team a needed boost as they tagged Novachis for four runs in the top of the third, two of which were cashed in by Webster, helping his own cause with a double.
The next batter, Kevin Holmes, nailed Novachis for an RBI double through the second baseman. Brendan Monk would answer that with a bolt up the third base line.
“The bats were going today. Offensively, I thought we had one of our best games,” Salvatore said. “We left a lot of guys on base still, which is something we want to try and correct to generate some more runs, but I think overall we’ve got to be pretty happy with a win like this.”
Pitching changes by both Leaside and Malvern came in the fifth. Hayden shut down Malvern’s run production while Ainsworth-Wieb let his infield do most of the heavy lifting.
With their first mark under the L column, Lancers coach Eric Stickney was calm, noting their next game May 18 against Humberside is a must-win.
“I’m proud of my guys,” he said. “They keep getting better every game. They’ve been learning a lot.”
Salvatore’s charges will look to shoot down Oakwood Barons at Christie Pitts the same day.
“We’re right in the hunt for the top of our division,” he said. “With a win against Oakwood we’d be right in there with a first round bye for the playoffs.”