NewburyportNews.com, Newburyport, MA
August 15, 2014Mariners outduel Rams
By Pat Bradley
Sports Reporter
Sports Reporter
---- — ROWLEY — After a rough outing on Saturday where he was knocked around for five runs, Manchester-Essex’ Ryan Marques was on a mission. The 26-year-old righty from Gloucester threw a complete game and kept the Rams at bay for most of the evening, eventually earning a 3-2 victory over their rivals.
“Rowley’s a really good team and you’ve got to be up for the game and ride off of it. They put up a ton of runs off me on Saturday, so I was happy with the way the game went today,” Marques said.
Even giving up an early run in the first couldn’t shake his groove.
“I stay confident out there, and if there’s a guy on base I bear down a little bit more and just work through it,” he said. “Today I was throwing three pitches for strikes, keeping it down and moving around, and I got some calls on the corner which you always like to see. It helps me set up pitches. I usually pitch to contact and let them play behind me.”
His counterpart, Mike Sloban, was equally effective, just not quite as good yesterday.
Sloban finished with 7 hits, a walk, 3 strikeouts and an error, while Marques finished with 4 hits, 8 strikeouts and a hit batsman.
“What it comes down to is that the guy we had on the mound wasn’t about to give in. He was pitching on four days’ rest, but no one was going to take the ball out of his hands today,” Rory Gentile said after the game. “He’s been the guy for a few years, he’s been a Mariner for a long time. In a big game, that’s the guy you want on the hill.”
The big blow came in the third inning for the Mariners. Caulin Rogers led off the inning reaching on an error, and Mike Cain followed with a base hit to left. Gentile, the team’s No. 3 hitter, came up with two on and no out and laid down a sacrifice bunt. Sloban couldn’t field it cleanly, though, and rushed the throw to first, sailing it down the right field line as Rogers and Cain both scored. A heads-up Gentile hustled his way over to third, sliding in safely and setting up the team’s cleanup hitter, Nate Bertolino. The big first baseman put a drive into the next pitch and sent it deep enough to center that Gentile could tag from third and score what proved to be the game-winning run.
“If we hit lazy ground balls, the teams are going to make the plays, but if you put the pressure on with guys on first and second and put a bunt down — I’m the three hitter, I still put the bunt down, and you saw what happened,” Gentile said. “You’ve got to pressure on, and that’s what we did in that inning. They’re human and make mistakes just like we do, but it’s about keep the pressure on.”
Tim Cashman’s RBI groundout scored Anthony Conte to give the Rams an early 1-0 lead. Cam D’Agostino’s infield hit drove in Rowley’s second run of the game in the fourth inning, but it was all the team’s offense could muster.
The Rams still lead the series 2-1, and return to the field Saturday at 2 p.m. for Game 4.
