By Joseph Staszewski
Holy Cross continues to be its own worst enemy against the top teams in the CHSAA boys’ baseball league.
The Knights have proven they are talented enough to play with any club in the division, but they haven’t been able to overcome errors in the field that have allowed for close games to get away.
“The beginning of the season was rough,” junior first baseman Brandon Simone said. We are in a lot of games now. We always have that inning that just messes us up for the rest of the game.”
The mistakes bit Holy Cross again in an eventual 10-1 loss to visiting Xaverian, the defending division champion, in CHSAA baseball April 23. The Knights trailed just 2-1 until the Xaverian scored six runs in the fourth inning. Two Holy Cross errors set the stage for the big frame.
“Today we made a couple of bad plays in that one inning and we just [fell] apart,” Knights Coach Steve Adams said.
Holy Cross (4–4) is still an inexperienced team. Only three seniors — centerfielder Chris Moussa, catcher Nick Milata and second baseman Jack Thorsen — are part of the starting lineup. Only Moussa, a three-year starter, has seen significant playing time.
Holy Cross made five errors in a 3-2 loss to Xavier and slipups cost them in a 4-2 defeat at the hands of St. Francis Prep.
Starting pitcher Anthony Sigismondi stifled the Holy Cross lineup for Xaverian (6-2). The Knights’ lone run came on a single to right field by Frankie Tribble that drove in Milata to make it 2-1. Simone added two hits. The team’s miscues are something the Knights think they can reduce as the season goes on and the players gain more experience.
“The more we work in practice, the more we will figure it out,” Simone said.
One of Holy Cross’ biggest assets so far has been its pitching. Starter Jimmy Curran threw strikes and allowed eight hits, five in the fourth over 3 2/3 innings of work. Reliever Marcus Mari surrendered two runs on two hits in his 2 1/3 innings on the mound. Their defense needs to begin helping them out more.
“We’ve pitched well,” Adams said. “The pitching has been a surprise. We’ve pitched pretty well this year. We are just letting our team down defensively. We are just making too many errors.”
