By Jay Jenkins / Scrimmageplaycva.com contributor
The banners that hang around the fences of Swanson Field offer a quick reminder of the dominance the St. Anne’s-Belfield baseball program has enjoyed for over a decade.
Currently rebuilding after losing eight seniors from the 2011 VISAA Division I championship team, the Saints were reminded – in a 72-hour window – of the humbling steps that process entails as two talented Christchurch pitchers nearly combined for a no-hitter on Thursday as the Seahorses won 9-0.
STAB (1-8. 0-4 Prep League) lost 8-0 earlier in the week on the road against the Seahorses, but the offense provided five hits in that contest.
Thanks to an infield hit from STAB junior Matt Morris with one out in the sixth inning, the Saints avoided falling on the wrong side of a no-hitter.
Christchurch used a 6-foot-3 southpaw (Trevor Otey) that has at least one Division I scholarship for the Class of 2013 and another flame-throwing righty (Michael Taylor) that inked to play in Conference USA at Marshall University four months ago.
Otey and Taylor needed just 91 pitches and struck out seven Saints in the shutout as radar guns littered the area behind home plate.
It was a challenge that Swanson wanted for one of the youngest teams that the Saints’ have employed in the past decade.
“I like that team a lot,” Swanson said of Christchurch. “They are playing really well right now. This season is a learning experience for us. I want these kids to bat against good pitchers and they did that tonight. They will take something away from it.”
Christchurch coach Jon Waite pointed out how critical it was that his team provided the pitchers with two runs in the first two innings. The Seahorses batted around in a four-run first inning and put up four more runs in the second frame.
“After we beat them 8-0 on Tuesday, scoring early was the big thing,”
Waite said. “In going to their place, you never know what can happen. I told them that we didn’t want to give them any confidence, so let’s go put a crooked number up first and really try to put them down early and not give them any life.
“It would have been nice to finish it early and not go all seven [innings], but it is still good that we jumped out early and took control. That’s what our goal was, to make that happen.”
Waite watched his team register 13 hits but the veteran coach did not relish in the win, having been on the opposite side of the spectrum against the Saints on more occasions than he would enjoy recounting.
“We’ve been on the other end of that with them a lot,” he said. “I have coached against Alan for 20 years now and they have some young players that will benefit from their experience. They will be better really soon.”
