RallyNorth.net

Thu, May 15, 2008 06:30 PM @ Rockport

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Final
Georgetown	4	2	0	0	5	1	3	15
Rockport	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1

Rockport bats go quiet in big loss to Georgetown

Friday, May, 16 By Nick Curcuru
Correspondent

The Rockport baseball team came into yesterday's matchup with Georgetown looking to accomplish two things.

First they were looking to knock off their Cape Ann League rivals. But more importantly, they were looking to clinch a berth in the state tournament.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, they ran into Royals pitcher Tim Holland. The hard-throwing right-hander kept the Vikings bats at bay allowing just one run and one hit. He also helped out his own cause at the plate going 3 for 3 with four runs scored in Georgetown's 15-1 win at Evans Field.

Holland took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Vikings catcher Eric Juncker broke it up with a line drive single to left field.

"Tim was the story of the game," Georgetown head coach Mark Rowe said. "He had a couple of hits offensively but his biggest impact was on the mound. He had all of his pitches going tonight and he pitched great. He even saved a few hits with his glove."

Rockport head coach John Parisi was also impressed with Holland's performance.

"He was phenomenal," Parisi said. "He had a hard fastball, a good curveball, and he was just wild enough to keep us off balance."

The Royals (9-7) got on the board early with six runs in the first two innings. Georgetown right fielder Andrew Barba made it 3-0 when he doubled to deep left-center field scoring Mike Rult, who had singled, Holland, who was hit by a pitch, and Joe Esposito who was hit by a pitch. Barba would come in to score two batters later on a Chris Esposito single to make it 4-0 Royals.

Georgetown was right back at it in the second when Esposito singled in Anthony Conte and Holland to make it 6-0. The Vikings bounced back with a run of their own in the bottom of the second when Cory Emerson came in on a double-steal.

That would be as close as the Vikings (8-7) would get, as Georgetown added five more runs in the fifth, one in the sixth and three in the seventh.

Rowe was pleased that his offense broke out after suffering four straight losses averaging just over one run a game.

"It was four games of frustration at the plate coming out for us tonight," Rowe said. "We played very relaxed with Tim on the mound with a four-run lead. No lead is ever safe against Rockport, we have played them too many times to be comfortable up five runs, luckily we were able to keep their bats at bay and hit ourselves."

Parisi said being down early was the difference in the game.

"It was tough playing from behind early," Parisi said. "Especially when we are facing a tough pitcher, it was a tough game."

The Vikings will be hoping to get back on track when they host Hamilton-Wenham tomorrow (6 p.m.). Parisi is confident that the Vikings will bounce back from yesterday's bad loss.

"We just had a bad game," Parisi said. "We are a good team and we will put this loss behind us and play better baseball tomorrow."