Concord Monitor – Baseball: Pitching and defense determine John Stark’s victory over Bow, Generals move to 8-0

WEARE – The offense has come and gone for head coach Dennis Pelletier’s team through the first three weeks of the 2024 season, but John Stark’s (8-0) pitching and defense have been more than potent.

Wednesday in a 2-0 win over Bow (5-3), junior Chase Philibotte pitched six shutout innings, allowing five hits, no runs, three walks and striking out nine, while senior Anthony Paolicelli slammed the door in the first half of the competition. seventh, striking out the side. The Falcons put pressure on the Generals defense, loading the bases in the first inning and allowing multiple runners to reach base in the third and fourth, but Philibotte successfully wriggled out of trouble each time.

“Those guys are damn good,” Pelletier said of his pitchers. “Our pitching was perfect because that’s the part we worked on the most, being inside a lot. But our hitters did face our pitchers. Our pitchers are faced with live hitting, even in February when we did our group workouts. And I think that really helped us get ready now.”

John Stark’s appearance was part of what has become a pattern this season. Now starting the year at 8-0, the Generals have outscored their opponents 60-8, and have held their opponents to one point or less in seven of eight wins.

“We had plenty of chances to win that baseball game, but we just didn’t score,” Bow head coach Ben Forbes said. “We loaded the bases in the first inning with no one out. Take nothing from them; they played a solid game. They had no problems all day. We’re just not getting the timely hit we need. We played well enough defensively. We scored well enough. We did everything well enough to win that ballgame, except getting hit by runners in scoring position.”

In the first inning, with Bow loading the bases, Philibotte induced a ground ball off Sean Guerrette’s bat. He hit shortstop Hunter Keim’s right, played cleanly and shot to second to draw out the power and end the threat. It was by no means a routine play, and it was just the latest example of why it’s so difficult to score against this team.

“If you have good pitching and good defense, you always have a chance, and that’s why I believe we’re in every game,” Pelletier said. “Hunter Keim made a great play there in that first inning with the bases loaded, coming up and being able to throw to second base. That’s a great play. That’s a guy who’s going to play college baseball next year (at Suffolk University), and that’s one of the advantages we’ve had over the years. We have a lot of players of that caliber who are going to play at the next level, who really want to play at the next level, who work hard in the offseason and prepare.”

Meanwhile, the Falcons also turned in a similarly respectable effort on the mound and in the field, limiting the Generals to just two runs. Junior Dillon Abbate started and threw 3.2 innings, allowing five hits, two runs, walked none and struck out two. In relief, junior Owen Cray did not allow a run in 2.1 innings of work.

However, coming through with runners in scoring position at home plate will remain a focus.

“We take too many good pitches, swing too many bad pitches and think about the plate too much,” Forbes said. “Really, I think a lot of it will be the mental approach. They need to go up there with the attitude of a hitter and not the attitude of hoping they don’t make a mistake. They should not be afraid of making a mistake. They just have to go play.”