SUFFERN - If Suffern's Matt Matcovich keeps up this pace, he's going to have to look for a safe place to keep all of his gems.
For the second time in as many starts Matcovich sparkled, pitching a one-hitter in the Mounties' 5-0 victory over visiting Clarkstown South yesterday.
" I just keep throwing what they tell me to throw, trust a everyone behind me and trust Lou (lannaccone), my catcher," Matcovich said.
The junior left-hander struck out nine in the game. The Vikings' only hit was delivered by Sean Lukasiewicz in the third inning.
" He's a tough pitcher," Clarkstown South coach Rich Wirchansky said. " His fastball has some pop and he throws his curveball for strikes. It's tough to string together a couple of hits off of him."
Suffern (5-0) provided early run support for Matcovich. Rob Wiater and Dan Cirafici led off the first inning with singles. Conor Andreas tripled both runners home and scored two batters later on a fielder's choice to make the score 3-0.
" When runners are in scoring position, somebody needed to get the job done for us, " Andreas said. " If we get runs there, it pretty much sets the tone for the game. "
The Vikings (4-2) had their best chance to cut into the lead wiped out by some bad luck in the top of the fourth inning.
With two outs and sophomore Sean Darsee on first, Travis Triano hit a high pop to, shallow left field and the Mounties misplayed the ball. Cirafici corralled the ball and fired it over the head of third baseman Bruce Barclay.
Seeing the ball go toward the dugout, Darsee rounded third and headed home. But the ball rebounded off the facade of the dugout right back to Matcovich, who made an easy tag to end the inning.
" It was an overthrow " Wirchansky said. " When it bounced back in it's just bad luck and it went right back to the pitcher. If it went in the dugout, he's home."
Suffern scored twice more off starting pitcher Eric Alessio in the bottom of the fourth to open a 5-0 lead. Alessio pitched six innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits while striking out five.
More bad luck came the Vikings' way in the sixth inning. One of the team's leading hitters, catcher Brian Vickers, injured his shoulder diving back into second base on a pickoff play.
" He felt " (the shoulder) pop out. It went back in, but he's still in some pain," Wirchansky said.
Vickers was removed from the game. " We're going to get him to a doctor and see what's up," Wirchansky added.
As Matcovich continues to impress, expectations are rising. Atypically, the control pitcher walked six in the game.
" Today he was a little choppy actually," Suffern coach Ron Gamma said. "I didn't think he had command over a lot of pitches. He doesn't walk a lot of people, so it was extremely unusual for him. "
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