Trumbull High showed its veteran makeup and host St. Joseph took another step toward gaining the experience needed in the FCIAC, when the Eagles scored a 10-1 victory over the Cadets on Wednesday.
“A lot of things went went well for us today,” Trumbull head coach Phil Pacelli after his Eagles leveled their record at 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the FCIAC. "We got the bats going today.”
Trumbull banged out 11 hits off a trio of Cadet pitchers.
Alex Rauso went 4-for-4 and drove in three runs. Robert Olah had a two-run double. Chris O’Brien and Andrew Lojko had RBI singles.
Tom Montelli had a single and a double for St. Joseph (0-2).
O’Brien pitched 4.2 innings to get the win. The left-hander allowed one run on two hits. He struck out seven and walked five.
Al Paolozzi got the start for St. Joseph, and the freshman pitched into the sixth inning.
“I thought for a freshman making his first varsity start, against a town rival, that Al did a great job," St. Joseph head coach Jim Chaves said. "He didn’t get rattled.”
Lojko singled in the first and scored on O’Brien’s two-out single to right.
Rauso and Jack Lynch had singles to open the Trumbull second, but the left-handed Paolozzi got out of the jam with third baseman S.J. Arnone making a couple of fine plays.
Taking advantage of a pair of infield hits, the Eagles made it 3-0 in the third.
Lojko beat out a roller and Olah walked, before Paolozzi put the next two outs in the book.
A wild pitch plated one run and that brought University of Bridgeport bound Rauso to the plate.
He hit an unplayable ball deep to Neil Velasquez at shortstop as Olah scored.
Trumbull took the score to 4-0 in the fourth.
Danny Ruchalski lined an inning-opening single and Vinny DeRubeis followed with a base hit.
Dustin Siqueira put down the first of his two sacrifice bunts, moving the runners up a base.
Lojko’s long sacrifice fly, well played in the left field corner by Montelli, brought Ruchalski across the plate.
O’Brien had given up two walks through three frames, with the first being erased on a 1-6-3 pickoff that saw DeRubeis make the rundown tag.
The senior retired the first two batters in the fourth, but lost control.
Walks to Matt McKernan, Paolozzi and Connor Hurley (RBI), around Montelli’s single, put the Cadets on the scoreboard.
Rauso was left stranded after his third hit in the fifth.
With two down in the bottom of the frame, Dave Capela singled off O’Brien and Lynch came on in relief. The right-hander got a grounder to Lojko at third to end the threat.
Four walks and base hits by Lojko (RBI) and Rauso (two RBIs) saw Trumbull double its lead in the sixth.
Montelli doubled off right-handed reliever Tony Socci in the home sixth only to be left at second base.
Josh Colondona and Lojko worked out walks and Olah doubled them home, before right-hander Ben Talbot notched his third strikeout of the frame to strand a runner in the seventh.
Jake Benigno pitched around an error and a walk in a scoreless home seventh.