Mike Hayden pitches seven-hitter in 5-3 CW win

Cranston West senior Mike Hayden pitched a complete game, allowing seven hits, walking just one, and striking out three batters at critical moments to lead the Falcons to their second win of the season, 5-3, over defending state champion Bishop Hendricken.

Matt Pagano had a game-clinching RBI to right in the fourth inning, driving in teammate Tyler Collins, who had walked and stolen second. Pagano was thrown out trying to stretch the hit to a double, as a perfect strike from Hawks rightfielder Tom Pannone found its target at second base for the third out. But that great inning-ending play happened well after Collins scored.

Jeff Diehl did not disappoint at least a dozen professional baseball scouts there in attendance to see him. In his first two-at bats, the lanky 6-5 senior catcher backed up Pannone deep in right on a major-league fly ball in the first and had a single in the third.

Then Diehl greeted Hawks’ reliever Nick Panarello in the fifth inning by belting the first pitch he saw from the senior righthander- a fastball in the middle- for a 375-foot line-drive homer over the center field fence.

The Falcons jumped out to 3-0 lead in the third inning on four hits and three stolen bases off starter Cody Perras (four innings, Hayden helped his own cause when he drove in a run on a hard infield single. McCool legged out a double to left just inside the third-base line to drive in Diehl and Anthony Crudale.

Not that Hayden was a total master of his mound domain. On this moderately windy and cool day, Hawks batters backed up Falcon outfielders to the fence three times, two gathered in by Matt McCool, first on a Bobby Indeglia fly to start the game and another by Hawks catcher Billy Walker with two men on in the seventh inning.

"There were just too many fly balls,” said Hendricken head coach Ed Holloway. “We left too many guys on the base paths. But their pitcher did a nice job.”

Indeed, the Hawks left eight men on base in all, two times each in the second, fourth, sixth and final inning. Hayden stifled the Hawks with three K’s to end the second and fourth innings and, the most important time- the final out of the game in the seventh.

The only Hawks damage done to the scoreboard came in the fourth inning when they scored all their runs. After Billy Walker and Louis Umberto stroked one-out singles and Indeglia walked to load the bases, Zach Conte delivered a ground-ball single up the middle, driving in the Hawks first run. P.J. Murray then came through with a stinging two-run single to right to tie
the game.  

Conte led all players with three hits, but was stranded twice. 

In the sixth, after Conte stroked a double and P.J. Murray blooped a single in the sixth, two more fly balls killed Hawks chances.

Hayden saw two infield errors behind him prolong the climatic seventh inning. But with two runners on at first and second, Hayden got Richard Bacon to fly out and jousted with Indeglia for six pitches before fooling him with a low and inside pitch on the plate corner for the game-ending out.

“This is a huge confidence booster for us,” said Falcons head coach Rob Malo. “I think that Mike (Hayden) with this pitching performance definitely separated himself from the other starters right now.”

BH    000 300 0     3-7-0

CW   003 110  X      5-9-2

CW: Hayden and Diehl; BH: Perras, Pannarello (5) and Walker

Records: CW, 2-0; BH, 1-1

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