Baseball/softball notebook: St. Mary’s off to sizzling start

St Mary s entered the season as one of a handful of contenders for the Division state baseball title Through six games nothing has happened to dispel that notion The - Spartans have beaten a pair of future Div college pitchers Scott Longo and Andrew Shute and a bonafide high school ace Matt Burt in the process Pitching has been the No reason for our success explained St Mary s coach Derek Dana We ve got two No guys Josh Doney and Jack Zimmerman who are very good pitchers who will go on to pitch in college They invariably want the ball and they give us innings Jake Peterson has been with us for three years he s been in particular big games as well Cam McGonagle wasn t with us last year because of an injury he suffered during hockey but he was our leading hitter as a sophomore and will pitch for us as well as Jackson Finn St Mary s isn t just a job for Dana it s his life A star athlete at St Mary s where he was part of state championship teams in and Dana went on to play at UMass and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants in the th round of the MLB Draft He spent four years in the minors before returning home and becoming the head coach at his alma mater years ago This school means a lot to me reported Dana who has guided the Spartans to three state titles in his tenure I love this place I love everything about the school Athletic director Jeff Newhall does a great job he gives us everything we need which makes things a lot easier The kids know the past and understand that but we want them to be part of something now Because of the deep and talented rotation St Mary s doesn t need to bang out hits on a daily basis in order to achieve success The Spartans have relied on timely hitting from the likes of Michael DeMaino Jared Paone Josh Doney Kyle Doney and McGonagle to stay perfect through six games We re not hitting the way we would like but I can see that we are having much better at-bats than we did last year Dana explained We re a year older and the approaches at the plate are much improved Diamond dandies Xaverian baseball coach Gerry Lambert joined the -win club earlier last week when the Hawks defeated Hopkinton - A graduate of Xaverian where he played for Bill Porter Lambert took over the scheme in and has guided the Hawks to three state titles as well as four sectional titles in his seasons at the helm Staying with the Catholic Conference coaches in the league aren t paying lip facility when they say on any given day any group in the league can beat the other That happened last Monday as winless Catholic Memorial knocked off defending state champion and previously unbeaten BC High - thanks to a key two-run double by Richie Curran Holliston dialed up Dr Longball early and often against Millis Evan Engel Sam Schoenberg and Ben Maiorano each homered twice and combined for RBI as Holliston cruised to a - win Whitman-Hanson s Taryn Leonard is no stranger to going yard herself The Panther standout belted a pair of home runs in an - win over Hingham giving her for her career Bishop Feehan s Mylee Ramer took matters into her own hands against St Mary s She struck out and homered twice including a grand slam in a - win to improve to - on the season The Shamrocks have a key nonleague showdown against King Philip slated for Patriots Day All-Scholastic junior pitcher Elsie Testa of Abington keeps putting up impressive numbers The reigning South Shore Tobin Contestant of the Year cracked the -strikeout mark for her career in a - win over Cohasset Last year Testa struck out batters in innings and finished with a miniscule ERA If you have any notebook ideas please don t hesitate to reach out to me at donato ventura bostonherald com