CROMWELL >> Undefeated Morgan School ace Chad Neri held Cromwell to four hits in leading the Huskies to a 6-2 Shoreline Conference win over the Panthers Monday afternoon at Fran Monnes Field.
It was Cromwell’s fourth loss in a row and fifth in its last six tries.
Neri (7-0), who has an earned run average of less than one, actually saw his ERA go up as he gave up an earned run. But except for that hiccup, he was in charge.
“He’s phenomenal,” Morgan coach John Litevich said. “He has walked just four all season; he’s always around the plate.”
That was not the case with Neri’s counterpart from Cromwell, Matt Osora. The Cromwell starter walked just one, but he hit four batters and three of them scored. But even with that, had it not been for some shoddy Cromwell defense, this might have been a nail-biter.
The Panthers made five errors in the second and third innings that led to two unearned runs — four altogether — that put Cromwell behind early.
“We certainly weren’t sharp,” Cromwell coach Lew Pappariella said. “We gave away some runs that put us in a hole and Matt was wild. That’s not typical of him or our defense. Matt normally has good command and we normally play much better defense.”
Morgan put a run on the board in the first inning on a leadoff double by Dylan Ketch, an Osora wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to center by Madden Ward.
The lead went to 4-0 in the second.
Osora hit the first two batters and that was followed by an error by shortstop Noah Budzik that loaded the bases. One run scored on Nick Caprio’s base hit to center and the second scored when Cromwell turned a sparkling double play started by Budzik on Chuck Kostek’s bouncer up the middle.
“We took advantage of some of their mistakes,” Litevich said. “When you have opportunities you have to take advantage, especially against a good team like Cromwell.”
The Panthers also took advantage of three third-inning Morgan errors to climb back in the game. Lawton Coleman started things when he legged out an infield single and he continued on to second when shortstop Ward threw the ball over the bleachers.
Luke Matchett then tripled to right and when second baseman Drew Walton threw wildly past third, Matchett waltzed home to cut the lead to 4-2. Ward then kicked Peter Dewey’s ground ball for his second error of the inning.
But after Dewey was thrown out trying to steal, Neri restored order by getting a pop up and a comebacker.
Cromwell (10-8) managed only three baserunners after that.
“We’re in a rut,” Pappariella said. “We were 9-3 at one point, but we aren’t hitting and we’re not driving in runs when we have chances.”
Morgan (14-3) tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Osora hit Ward leading off the inning which ended his day.
Reliever Aidan Gagnon struck out the first batter he faced, but then gave up two hits in a row with Cooper Thompson’s single chasing home a run.
After the second out, Gagnon gave up back-to-back walks with the second freebie to Kostek forcing in a run.
Cromwell pitching gave up only five hits, but also hit four and walked four. Osora (1-4) took the loss.
“This league is very tough,” Litevich said. “Every game is a war and I’m happy that we’ve won a lot of those wars this season.’
Cromwell is home this afternoon (3:45) with Manchester.
The post Baseball: Neri lifts Morgan past Cromwell appeared first on GameTime CT.