St. Vincent baseball winning streak now at six

The St. Vincent baseball team stretched its season-starting win streak to six straight with an 8-4 win over St. Helena.|

The St. Vincent baseball team continued to defy both the weather and the opposition, working through a rainy Friday to defeat St. Helena, 8-4, for its sixth straight win.

Pitching off his home mound, senior Ethan Rapoport allowed St. Helena’s visiting Saints a run in the first inning, but then he took charge. He worked five impressive innings, allowing five hits, only three after the first inning, and no more runs. He struck out two and walked three.

Meanwhile, Rapoport’s bat mates gave their pitcher plenty of run support. The Mustangs used a single by AJ Wright and a long double to left by Gio Antonini for a run in the last of the first inning.

Giving an indication of things to come, the Mustangs also hit two balls very hard into outs in that first frame. Reno Nalducci led off for SV and slammed a line drive right at the St. Helena second baseman. Later in the inning, Matt Pierson blazed a shot at the third baseman that was converted into a double play.

No worries, the Mustangs came right back for four runs in the second and were off and galloping, adding a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth.

Rapoport was replaced by Trent Free in the sixth inning, and he ran into a little trouble in the seventh as St. Helena rallied for three runs before the Mustangs could close things out.

St. Vincent had eight hits in the game, with Antonini going 3-for-3 with two doubles and Nalducci and Free each collecting two hits.

A highlight of the game came when a St. Helena batter popped up into a triple play. With Saints runners at first and second, a pop to the infield was dropped by St. Vincent second baseman Ryan Nalducci. The batter was ruled out by the infield fly rule, and when both runners moved off base, both were tagged out by the infielder for a triple play.

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