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Georgetown bests Kneeland, Triton

Monday, April, 28 By Jim Sullivan
Correspondent

Cam Kneeland's torrid start was perhaps the biggest factor in the Triton baseball team's 4-0 record leading into the school's April vacation last week.

But the Vikings senior, who leads all River Rival players in home runs and batting average, wasn't able to prevent his squad from completing April vacation with a three-game losing streak Saturday.

Despite Kneeland's complete game on the mound and two RBIs at the plate, Triton (4-3) could not overcome Georgetown pitcher Andy Sinkewicz's cut fastball in a 7-4 loss.

"Andy pitched as good a game as I've ever had pitched for me against a good team," said Royals coach Mark Rowe of his sophomore hurler. "It was a really good win and a gutsy performance."

Thing started out well at the top of the first for the Vikings as Kneeland knocked in an RBI double then scored on Joe Katin's double. Georgetown (6-2) continued the trend with a Chris Esposito RBI double, followed shortly with an RBI single from Andrew Barba, tying the score 2-2.

Both pitchers settled in for the second and third with Sinkewicz making Will Short his fifth strikeout victim of the day, stranding a runner at third.

"Strikeouts aren't important to me," said Sinkewicz, making his second start after a no-decision against Manchester Essex. "It's getting the outs. That's all that matters."

Kneeland found himself in trouble in the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded and one out. Anthony Conte made Kneeland pay, hammering a double to left center, scoring all three runners. Joe Esposito popped out, followed by Tim Holland's single. Kneeland recovered to get Darwin Fabian with a grounder to first to limit the deficit to 5-2.

Kneeland got a taste of revenge at the top of the sixth, hitting a two-out RBI single, but was unable to score as Sinkewicz got Andrew Fecteau to go down swinging.

Sinkewicz reached with a single in the bottom of the sixth. Jeff Rollins plated Sinkewicz with a double to deep centerfield. Rollins then scored on a single from Joe Esposito.

After giving up a double to Short in the top of the seventh, Rowe decided to take no chances, pulling Sinkewicz in favor of Holland who gave up a single to Devin Culverwell, bringing in Short. Holland did not allow another run.

"That's the great thing about Timmy," Rowe said of Holland who also closed against Hamilton-Wenham Thursday. "He's got a pretty resilient arm. He could have gone two, three innings today."

"This was a statement game for us. We had to stand up against a good team and make a statement to the league that we're here," said Rowe, adding, "Kneeland is, in my mind, one of the best pitchers out there. That's a testament to us that we were able to score runs off him."

The Vikings next head to Notre Dame Tuesday, while the Royals head for a rematch against Ipswich | a team that narrowly bested them in the championship game of the first annual Bert Spofford Memorial Tournament.