St. Raphael 5, Westerly 0 - June 14, 1951
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St. Raphael Evens Semi-Final Play-off Series With Westerly By Scoring 5-0 Win
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St. Raphael Evens Semi-Final Play-off Series With Westerly By Scoring 5-0 Win1
Paul Fiore Hurls Four-Hitter, Fans 11 In Blanking Bulldogs
By TED MULCAHEY
St. Raphael Academy's baseball team evened its best-of-three semi-final series for the Interscholastic League crown with Westerly by blanking the Bulldos, 5-0, yesterday at Craig Field, Westerly.
The teams will meet in the deciding game tomorrow afternoon at Brown University's Aldrich Field. Coach Barney Garrity of the Saints probably will start Bill Parenteau on the mound against Westerly's Dave Stenhouse. The two locked up in the first game of the series with Stenhouse winning, 1-0.
A superbly twirled four-hitter by sophmore Paul Fiore and some lusty hitting by George Lovett and Bill Kennedy enabled St. Raphael to square the series.
Fiore Fans 11
Fiore, a right-hander, baffled the Westerly batsmen with a side-arm curve which he showed for the first time and which time after time caught the Bulldogs looking at third strikes. All told Fiore set 11 batters down on strikes and walked only one.
Meanwhile his mates were snapping of the batting slump that had marked their last few games by belting rugged Jim Pignataro, a southpaw, for 13 hits. Pignataro fanned 10 but he also walked four and was in constant hot water.
Kennedy, with two doubles and two singles, and Lovett, with three singles, paced the barrage, that pair having a hand in all five St. Raphael runs. Chet Hanewich and Johnny Higgins each rapped out a brace of singles.
St. Raphael opened the scoring in the second inning when Kennedy rifled a single to right and moved to second on Ralph D'Ambra's hit to short after Higgins had fouled out. Joe Dragon forced D'Ambra at second base but the relay to first on a double play try broke through first baseman Don Gingerella and Kennedy scampered home. Fiore flied to short to end the inning.
Score Two In Third
With one out in the third the Saints went to work on Pignataro for three hits and two runs. Roy Guarino walked and Hanewich and Lovett followed with singles, sending Guarino home. Kennedy slapped his second single to right to score Hanewich. Higgins then forced Lovett at third but D'Ambra walked to load the sacks. Dragon, however, fouled out for the third out.
Lovett accounted for the Saints' fourth run in the fifth. George led off with a single and after Kennedy had flied to left, Lovett stole second and moved up to third when catcher Fred Savage's throw went into centerfield. Higgins lined a single to right and Lovett came home. Higgins moved up on the throw in but got no farther than second as D'Ambra fanned and Dragon grounded out.
In the St. Raphael seventh, with one out, Lovett singled to center and moved to third on Kennedy's double to right. Higgins was given an intentional pass to load the sacks. D'Ambra flied deep to center and Lovett had no trouble scoring after the catch. Dragon went out on a ground ball for the third out.
Bases Left Loaded
Kennedy's second double, Higgins infield single and a walk to D'Ambra, all with two out, again loaded the bases for St. Raphael but the three were stranded. Only in the sixth and eighth innings did Pignataro set the side down in order, the Saints leaving 12 runners stranded.
Westerly's only real threat of the game came in the second inning. Gingeralla doubled down the left field line and Savage followed with another hard smash to left which Higgins hauled in just as the ball was curving away from him. That was the key play, it later developed, as Bob Champlin's ground ball took a bad hop past Dragon, Gingerella holding second. Johnny Pappadia's bunt went through Fiore's legs for an error which loaded the sacks with only one out.
Fiore then showed he had it in the clutch by getting Pignataro on a called third strike and Lou Masucci on a swinging third strike.
Thereafter Westerly could get no runner beyond second base. Fiore set the side down in order in third, fourth, sixth and ninth innings. He racked up a pair of strikeouts in each of the two final frames.
| Name | POS | AB | R | H | PO | A | E | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | SB | HBP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agostini, G | ss | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Guarino, R | rf | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Hanewich, C | c | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Lovett, G | 1b | 5 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Kennedy, B | 2b | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Higgins, J | lf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| D'Ambra, R | cf | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dragon, J | 3b | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fiore, P | p | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 40 | 5 | 13 | 27 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. Raphael | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Westerly | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
- Headlines and story from unidentified newspaper clipping, 15 June 1951
