Blue Wave Baseball: DHS defeats Central = two game winning streak

By Ahmed Mustafa

            After snapping its three game losing streak on Wednesday, with a decisive victory over Bassick  High School 18-0, Darien High School Baseball was primed to defeat another Bridgeport team, Central HIgh School.

On the mound was junior Andrew Nault. Nault hadn’t made a start in over 10 days when he threw a complete game shutout against Westhill, but he made a relief appearance on April 15th, when Darien lost to Trumbull.

Nault looked sharp at the very beginning, but on the top of the second inning Central scored on a controversial play. With two outs and two men on base, both runners stole bases. Catcher senior Jack Travers made an attempt to get the batter out, but the throw went to the outfield. Both runners ran, but LF senior Tommy Dimaurio threw the ball at  third base, getting the batter out, but the umpire said the runner scored before the play.

Now down 1-0, DHS had to get the offense going, and  junior Bobby Fitzpatrick came through with a clutch RBI double. In the bottom of the third, junior Brendan Donahue hit a big RBI triple, giving Darien the lead. That’s all Nault needed, pitching a complete game, giving up only 1 run, with 4 strikeouts. DHS defeated Central 3-1.  Nault was pleased with his start.

“Good, arm wasn’t sore at all, I felt loose, it was easy. My fastball was good, I was really pounding it in,”Nault said.

Captain senior Andrew Maley was very pleased with the team's performance. He also spoke about his offense's struggles at the plate and the transition to switching positions from 3B to 1B:

“Solid win all  the way around: (the team) played good defense, had clutch hits, put it together a little bit, (which resulted in a) good win." As for Maley's own prospects: "I’m probably going to end up playing more 1B to make the defense a little better," he said.

As mentioned before, junior Brendan Donahue came up big with his clutch RBI triple to give DHS the lead. I asked him on his approach to the plate.

“I was just trying to take it the other way. He threw me a fastball - kind of middle of the zone outside  - I just took it where he pitched it,” Donahue said

Coach Mike Scott was overall very happy about the game.

“We beat a tough team. We beat a team that has beaten a couple of tough teams in this league. Great win for these boys, terrific team effort. Obviously we got a tremendous effort by Andrew on the mound, (he) threw a great game, and we backed him up with the defense, and that was the key in this game.”Coach Scott said.

Now Coach Scott’s team is on a two game winning streak and looks to take it from there with great pitching, improved defense, and solid offense.

Come catch the Blue Wave at its next game TODAY at 4 p.m. against New Canaan at Mead Park or 4 p.m. Wednesday at Greenwich. 

Pictured: Nault on the mound. Photo credit J. Gregory Raymond dariennewsonline