Hawks coast past Islanders, move to 7-0

Eric Rueb
Posted 4/30/15

Mike McCaffrey wasn’t perfect.

He was pretty close though.

With McCaffrey on the hill, you know what you’re going to get – death by one million drops. His stuff isn’t overpowering and …

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Hawks coast past Islanders, move to 7-0

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Mike McCaffrey wasn’t perfect.

He was pretty close though.

With McCaffrey on the hill, you know what you’re going to get – death by one million drops. His stuff isn’t overpowering and the pop in the catcher’s mitt doesn’t ring through the fields at Bishop Hendricken, but when the senior snipes his spots, he’s untouchable.

Middletown was his latest victim and the Islanders owe the Hawks’ offense a great deal of gratitude for ending the game via the mercy rule in the fifth. McCaffrey didn’t need the run support Tuesday; he didn’t surrender a hit until the fifth, barely threatened to walk a batter and had Middletown guessing like an unprepared student on a multiple choice test in the Hawks’ 10-0 win.

“They made all the plays,” said McCaffrey, crediting his defense for the win. “I probably had five strikeouts. When guys aren’t squaring it up, it’s just go ahead and hit it’ and they got it.”

“He always hits his spots,” catcher Gian Martellini said. “It all boils down to pitching and McCaffrey has done a great job this year.”

The pitching line was pretty – and would have been Hollywood-ready if Middletown’s Mike Garvey didn’t get his bat on a curve left up in the zone that found no-man’s land in right field to open the fifth.

McCaffrey struck out five and, despite the hit and an error by John Willette at shortstop to open the game, managed to face the minimum. In five innings he threw 57 pitches, 42 for strikes; he went to a three-ball count once; he threw six pitches to a batter once; he threw five to a batter three times; and only four times did he not throw a first pitch for a strike.

It was as efficient as you could ask a pitcher to be.

“I wanted to challenge guys, I guess,” McCaffrey said.

“His velocity is up a little bit this year, but he’s not going to strike out 15 a game,” Hendricken coach Ed Holloway said. “It’s enough to keep them off balance.”

So how does a lefty whose stuff doesn’t catch your eye dominate? Being the smartest kid on the team helps, even if McCaffrey works so fast he barely has time to think.

“McCaffrey has a very fast tempo and he likes to keep it going,” Martellini said. “You have to respect that. I try to get it back to him as quickly as possible.”

“I’m very confident I can do my thing,” McCaffrey said. “So why not do it faster?”

A more reasonable explanation is how he and Martellini work together. Whatever Martellini throws down, McCaffrey nods yes like a girl accepting a prom date.

“We’re always on the same page,” Martellini said. “At the beginning of the season we always started batters off with a first-pitch fastball, but since McCaffrey has such great command of his stuff, we don’t mind starting a three hitter or four hitter off with a changeup or a curveball. It keeps them guessing.”

Middletown’s Cam Sullivan was the anti-McCaffrey Tuesday, and the Hawks’ offense knew how to take advantage.

Hendricken (7-0 Division I-A) scored in three of the five innings, with a walk or hit by pitch helping the cause. Sullivan was a bit unlucky in the first, as neither RBI single by Martellini or John Toppa was hit particularly hard. Same story in the fourth on a slow roller up the middle by Martellini.

But how the runners got there? That’s another story.

Hendricken worked counts. In the first, Sullivan threw 23 pitches and Middletown (5-3 I-A) survived the second unscathed, but after getting out of a bases-loaded jam, he threw 31. A quick and quiet third gave the hard-throwing right-hander a break, but Sullivan ran into trouble in the fourth, surrendering two runs and brining his pitch count up to 92.

Sullivan was tired going to the fifth and the Hawks remained patient. With no outs – thanks to a walk, single and a mental mistake on a bunt by Andrew Ciacciarelli – Sullivan walked Mike Webb to make it 5-0, ending Sullivan’s afternoon.

Christian Jorge relieved Sullivan and walked Jason Comeau to bring Billy Keegan home. Willette followed with a sac fly and Kevin Sutyla followed with a triple to right that brought in Webb and Comeau.

Martellini had the lowest-pressure walk-off hit Hendricken might have all year, hitting a sac fly to center to bring home Sutyla for the final run.

“We faced him last year in the playoffs,” Holloway said. “He throws hard and he throws a lot of pitches in the game, so we talked about being patient and getting good pitches to hit, and the guys did a good job.”

With a 7-0 start to the season, you’re going to have a hard time finding someone who doesn’t think Hendricken is the team to beat this season.

The Hawks know that, on paper, they’re the favorite.

But they also know that paper doesn’t hang banners.

“I think we’ve played well all year and we haven’t played our best yet,” Holloway said. “We’re doing what we need to do and I think we’re going to get better as the year goes on.”

“On paper they say this team can win state without a doubt, but it’s baseball things. Things happen,” Martellini said. “The little things can make a difference and we just need to stay with our game plan.”

Hendricken is on the road today against Cranston East at Cranston Stadium at 3:45 p.m. and stays in the city limits Monday when it plays at Pilgrim at 4 p.m.

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