ANDOVER – It’s a good thing that this one didn’t count!
On Wednesday afternoon, the Central Catholic High baseball team played host to Mount St. Michael Academy of New York in an endowment game played at Greater Lawrence High’s Alumni Field.
Central sent five pitchers to the mound, who combined to give up 12 runs and 14 hits, while walking nine and hitting two more in the 12-6 defeat.
Central head coach John Sexton used a lot of young and inexperienced players in this contest, and stayed away from the more experienced hurlers including his ace pitcher, sophomore Danny Snyder, who has been the saving grace to the team’s 3-3 start.
“Danny has given us a chance (to win) a couple of times now,” said the coach. “We’re going to continue to ride him. He works fast, he throws a lot of strikes, he competes and he has done well for us.”
The 5-foot-11, 155-pound right-hander came up to the program last year and tossed a complete game shutout against Methuen. This season, he has appeared in four games, including a six-inning no decision against St. John’s of Shrewsbury, followed by a save against Dracut, and two complete game victories over Billerica (a 1-0 shutout) and Lowell.
His next start will come on Monday against a very strong North Andover team, but before then the Raiders will face Chelmsford on Thursday and Leominster on Friday with hopes of getting back on track.
“We knew we were going to be a young team. Being in it and being a young team is a lot harder than actually talking about it and doing it,” said Snyder. “We got a lot of young guys who gained some experience today.”
Snyder, who throws an 82-mile per hour two-seam fastball as well as a slider and a change-up, has been a pitcher since his youth days in Salem, N.H. He was a big part of the 10U team which won the New England Regionals in 2019. He played for Dan DeFrancesco — the manager of the 12-year-old team which played in the Little League World Series last summer — and assistants Kenny Gabriel and Brian Silver.
Snyder said that’s when he first got a taste of Central Catholic.
“I’ve grown up in the Central Catholic family,” he said. “Kenny Gabriel is a legend here and I played for him since I was eight years old. I give everything to him – everything I learned in this game. Dan DeFrancesco went to Central, Jim Giarrusso went to Central and all of those guys. I grew up in a Central environment so I know what it’s all about.”
Wednesday’s loss was not what “it’s all about.”
“Going forward we’ve got to be a lot better,” said Snyder. “We have to get the bats going, the defense has to be sharper and we have to communicate and talk. We just have to get the culture right again. It’s a little bit off right now so we have to get it back on track. We’re a brand new group of guys. We have six guys back from last year and everyone is new. We’re getting better and we’re learning.”