Archbishop Carroll baseball fell to La Salle College High School 10-0 in a six inning mercy rule contest Wednesday afternoon on the hilltop.
Senior Matt McGaughey took the hill for the Patriots, allowing nine runs on seven hits while walking three batters across three innings.
“They’re a really good program,” said head coach Pat Dunn. “That’s what you strive to be. They came out and took care of business. Fifteen hits. Two big time arms on their team. One thing I let the guys know is when you play a team like that you’ve got to go all out. You can’t let balls fall In front of you. I think they had 16 stolen bases and even in practice we work on holding guys and holding the ball a little longer.”
La Salle, the defending Philadelphia Catholic League champions and 6A state championship runner ups, are far and away the leading contenders to take home the hubcap once again.
With a roster loaded with division talent, La Salle is among the best the PCL and the area has to offer. Headlined by a pitching duo of William and Mary commit Jack Pye and Old Dominion commit Chris Cavalcante, the Explorers can deal it with the best of them.
That is exactly what they did against Carroll Wednesday evening. The Patriots left the diamond without a base hit, as the Explorers recorded a combined no-hitter between their two big arms. Carroll was able to muster just two walks while two batters were hit by pitches.
“They have a ton of talent,” said Dunn. “You know they’re going to throw strikes and they’re going to have a lot of depth, I think they have 40 guys on their team. But you know, I love my guys and I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
That wealth of talent doesn’t end on the mound for La Salle, which also boasts multiple high caliber hitters, the most intriguing of which may be first basemen Aimon Chandler, who went 2-3 on the day with a triple. The Virginia Tech commit anchored the La Salle lineup as the team totaled up 15 hits playing an impressive small ball game.
As McGaughey exited the game midway through the fourth inning, in came senior left hander Mark Fohner. Fohner would finish out the game for Carroll on the mound, only letting up the final run of the day along with three hits and a walk through three innings of work.
“I hope we come out and gain some confidence (Friday),” said Dunn. “We should get an opportunity to go out and see some of the younger guys and hopefully we get in the win column.”
The Pats are in for a big change of scenery come Friday as they flip the script from a state championship runner-up and league champion to a club that went 0-19 just a season prior in Upper Darby.
Friday’s contest will get started at 4 p.m. from The Hill at Archbishop Carroll and can be seen on the Carroll Sports Media YouTube channel.
