NEWBURYPORT — Everyone in the Triton dugout knew exactly what was about to happen.
It was the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs during Wednesday’s game, and senior captain Nick Bonasera was cruising on the mound with a Newburyport pinch hitter coming up to the plate. The Triton ace started the at-bat with two straight inside fastballs for strikes, getting the reserves in the dugout on their feet knowing what was coming next. Then right on cue, Bonasera tossed a curveball that on release caused the batter to fall to the dirt, before perfectly sweeping in for the inside strike-3 call to end the inning.
And you better believe it was all smiles from the righty walking back to the dugout.
The knee-buckling punchout was a highlight of another dominant day of work for Bonasera, who only needed 96 pitches to toss the complete-game, four-hit shutout with 11 Ks and no walks to lead Triton to the 6-0 win over Newburyport. The Vikings (2-1) are thrilled to have their ace back for another year, and he certainly looked the part once again on a chilly Wednesday afternoon at Pettingell Park.
“The curveball was definitely landing today, had a lot of guys ducking out on that which is always great to see,” said Bonasera. “Then just a lot of looking strikeouts today, which is always what you want.”
And Bonasera headlines what could be the best pitching staff in the CAL.
It was quite the breakout a year ago for the Daily News All-Star and All-CAL First Team selection, posting a 5-4 record with a 1.76 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 43.2 innings pitched. That ERA did take a little dip over the last few weeks of the season, and with hindsight being 20/20, Triton admits that it probably relied too much on Bonasera a year ago and burned him out.
But that won’t be the case this year.
Besides Bonasera, the Vikings return basically the bulk of their innings pitched from a year ago. That includes both Liam Friis (1-2, 4.33 ERA, 48 Ks in 32.1 IP) and Gavin Fraser (3-0, 2.30 ERA), whose fastballs both can rise to the mid-to-upper 80s. Josh Penney has also grinded during the offseason and is sitting in the mid-80s now, and Beckham Zizza is back and improved as well. During the team’s 3-0 shutout of Rockport on Tuesday, Zizza tossed five scoreless innings, before freshman Kellan Haley — yup, another one — shut the door over the final two frames.
Again, Triton is winning the “Arms Race” this year.
“We’ve got too many options,” laughed Triton coach Kyle Priest. “I mean, the experience we have at this point, too, we have so many seniors that have grown together. We’ve been working together for three years now, and they have a very good understanding of how they need to carry themselves. But with the arms that we have, we can start anyone on any given day and compete.”
And there’s a strong belief that pitching will carry Triton quite far this spring.
“Absolutely, our pitching is going to be really good,” said Bonasera. “We have a lot of seniors coming back this year, and we definitely have a deep rotation. Plus I think we have a great offense to pair with that, too. So I think we can be a really strong team.”
After the top of the first inning on Wednesday, Bonasera had enough support.
Following two straight walks to open the game, Genaro Carrillo ripped an RBI-single to center field, and Josh Hersey scored on a groundout to immediately put Triton up 2-0. The Vikings would then plate two more in the fourth inning on a two-run single from Liam Friis, and another pair in the fifth thanks in part to an RBI-single from Fraser (2-for-3).
“Then offensively we’re deep, too,” said Priest. “It hasn’t necessarily shown itself yet, we haven’t had that explosion game. But they’re all putting together great at-bats and are tough outs.”
For Newburyport (1-3), it did run into one of the best pitchers in the CAL.
But now through four games, the Clippers have yet to score more than three runs in any one of them. Jack Mercier really settled down on the mound after a shaky start, striking out seven over four innings of work before giving way to three solid frames from freshman Sam Luekens. Offensively, however, the Clippers have started out the year cold. Jack Oreal had half of the team’s hits going 2-for-3, with Mercier and Ryan Sanchez accounting for the only other Clipper baserunners on the day.
Bigger picture, though, that’s the second straight shutout for Triton.
And this pitching staff will probably do that to a lot more teams this year.
“I mean, a championship is always nice, but we’re working one step at a time here,” said Bonasera. “Getting a home playoff game would be great, winning the CAL is definitely a goal. But we’re taking it one game at a time.”
Triton 6, Newburyport 0
Triton (6): Connor Rumph ss 3-1-0, Josh Hersey c 3-2-1, Genaro Carrillo 2b 4-1-1, Gavin Fraser 3b 3-1-2, Nick Bonasera p 3-1-1, Josh Penney 1b 2-0-0, Adrian Antonio Meza Pina lf 3-0-1, Kellan Haley rf 2-0-0, Liam Friis cf 3-0-1. Totals 26-6-7
Newburyport (0): Tim Degraves ss 3-0-0, Jackson LaCava 2b 2-0-0, Finn Mone ph 1-0-0, Jack Oreal cf 3-0-2, Jack Mercier p 2-0-1, Troy Varoudakis ph/rf 1-0-0, Ryan Sanchez 1b 2-0-1, Bennet Beaulier ph 1-0-0, Nick Garabino c 2-0-0, Jack Devlin ph 1-0-0, Ray Arcand lf 2-0-0, Tim Sheehan ph 1-0-0, Parker Johnson rf 1-0-0, Sam Luekens p 1-0-0, Tommy Gagnon 3b 2-0-0. Totals 25-0-4
RBI: T — Friis 2, Fraser, Carrillo
WP: Bonasera (7 IP, 0 ER, 11 Ks); LP: Mercier (4 IP, 4 ER, 7 Ks)
Triton (2-1): 2 0 0 2 2 0 0 — 6
Newburyport (1-3): 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0