Larkin breezes past St. Edward
It wouldn’t be a farewell tour without gifts.
St. Edward baseball coach Gene Belmonte intends to step down at year’s end, so Larkin assistant Dan Koessl —a former head coach at St. Edward who hired Belmonte to coach the Green Wave sophomore team in 2000 — presented his retiring friend with a couple of trinkets before Friday’s nonconference game at Larkin: a signed baseball and a ticket for Friday’s $305 million Mega Millions drawing.
The lottery ticket came with a catch, though.
“We told Gene if he wins, he has to buy us a dome,” shivering Larkin coach Matt Esterino said after the Royals defeated Belmonte’s Green Wave 10-1 in 32-degree weather.
Unfortunately for Belmonte, his players were in a giving mood, too. St. Edward committed 5 errors and three Green Wave pitchers combined to walk nine hitters in addition to allowing 9 hits.
“It was a badly played game on our part,” Belmonte said. “The conditions were part of it, of course, but I didn’t see (multiple) errors by Larkin.”
In fact, the Royals played errorless baseball and pitchers Austin Royse (2-0), Rene Bolivar and Quinton Babusch combined to limit St. Edward to 1 run on 2 hits while issuing only 3 walks.
Larkin (2-1) wasted no time getting on the board with 2 first-inning runs. Victor Saldana’s groundout scored Trevor Whitehead, who led off with a single, and Kyle Newquist doubled home Miguel Villafane.
Larkin scored 4 runs in the second inning to take a 6-0 lead against St. Edward sophomore starting pitcher Jake Koehring (0-2). Austin Lodge led off the inning with a single and Whitehead and Royse each drew two-out walks to load the bases. Villafane then lined a single to the outfield to score a pair of runs to make it 4-0.
With his team leading 7-0 after three innings, Larkin coach Matt Esterino substituted liberally. One replacement, Drew Shore, entered the game as a pinch hitter in the fourth inning and went on to record 3 hits in 3 at-bats.
“Freezing, absolutely freezing,” Shore said of shedding his warmup jacket to enter the game.
And how did he stay warm between innings?
“Cuddling with the teammates,” he said with a laugh.
Royse held the Wave to 1 hit in 3 scoreless innings.
“They were throwing strikes, that was the main thing,” Esterino said of his pitchers.
Luke Duffy greeted Larkin reliever Rene Bolivar with a leadoff double to open the fourth inning. He later scored on Tighe Koehring’s groundout, accounting for the only run for St. Edward (1-4).