WORCESTER — It was merely a matter of time.
Till Caleb Allen settled right into a groove. Till the bats got here to life. Till the Oakmont Regional baseball crew discovered its footing and showcased simply how cool and picked up it had been all season.
Prime-seeded Oakmont rallied from a 1-0 deficit within the first, doing its injury within the center innings en path to a 3-1 victory over No. 2 St. Mary’s of Lynn at Polar Park to efficiently defend its Division 3 championship.
“(The championship) is still ours. It’s a storybook ending for us,” Oakmont head coach Tim Caouette mentioned. “Once we won last year, we wanted to come back and do it again and it all played out the way we hoped it would. We wanted Caleb to have the ball at Polar Park to defend that title and he did.”
Allen, a flame-throwing senior, scattered three hits and a stroll over his seven innings, placing out 10 for Oakmont, which closes the season with a 22-3 report. He gave up a pair of singles and a stroll within the first, resulting in a run, however settled in and shut down St. Mary’s bats.
“I was feeling great after the first. Obviously, I wasn’t feeling great in the first, giving up a run early, but I trusted my team and knew we’d get a couple runs,” Allen mentioned. “The game plan was to pound away in the zone because we thought they wouldn’t be able to hit it and once I started hitting my spots, our scouting was perfect.
“I just needed to settle in and then everything was great.”
The righthander was relegated to shortstop responsibility throughout final yr’s championship recreation, having pitched within the semifinals.
“I’ve been thinking about this game since last season,” he mentioned. “And it’s been on my mind since we won in the semifinals (on Tuesday).”
Trailing 1-0, the Spartans pulled even within the fourth. Sam Curtis (3-for-3, RBI, run) singled with one out earlier than stealing second. He got here in to attain on a single by Allen to knot the sport at 1.
The next inning, Oakmont took the lead.
Jake O’Day singled off Josh Doney (6 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 Okay) with one out and was adopted by a stroll to J.J. Walker. After Ty Curtis singled to load the bases, Johnny Losordo hit a sac fly to middle to attain O’Day and break the tie.
Sam Curtis then hustled to achieve on an infield single, scoring Walker and giving the Spartans a two-run lead.
“I knew he was going to pound the outside with the fastball and he had good off-speed,” Sam Curtis mentioned of Doney. “I was just sitting on the fastball in each at-bat. I was feeling confident up there.”
Sam Curtis additionally had the defensive play of the day, diving behind second base to cease a bounding ball hit by Rowan Merryman and throwing the St. Mary’s freshman out from his bottom within the sixth inning.
St. Mary’s (20-4) acquired on the board early and put the strain on Oakmont.
Michael DeMaino led off with a bloop single to left earlier than Jaiden Driscoll walked. Doney helped his personal trigger with a single to left that plated DeMaino and gave the second seed a 1-0 lead earlier than an out had been recorded.
