Warde baseball falls to Staples

By Eliot Schickler

The Fairfield Warde baseball team couldn't handle Staples pitcher Chris Speer and first baseman Bryan Terzian Monday.

Speer lifted Staples with his craftsmanship on the mound, and Terzian was unstoppable at the plate. The southpaw hurler was perfect in the first three innings and allowed one run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. His performance helped the Wreckers raise their record to 11-1, 9-1 in the FCIAC. Warde dropped to 8-4, 6-4.

Overall, Speer threw for six innings and has his longest start of the season. He is now 3-0 and pitched four innings in Staples' 4-1 win at New Canaan April 20.

"Warde is really good, and Chris Speer is on schedule," Wreckers coach Jack McFarland said. "He threw 60 pitches against New Canaan and today, we got him up to 85. It was great getting him into the seventh inning."

Terzian was 3-3 at the plate and had seven total bases.

"I stayed within myself, and I worked into the count,Terzian said.

Mustang coach Marc Caron tried to contain Terzian, but to no avail.

"Their No. 2 hitter [Terzian] killed us," Caron said. "We didn't do a good job of containing their best hitter."

McFarland said, "Teams are very careful with him [Terzian]. We moved him up in the batting order because he'd see more fastballs at the No. 2 spot. He had a breakout game today."

Warde's Mike DeFilippis pitched better than the statistics would indicate. DeFilippis gave up six run, five earned, on six hits in five innings.

"Our pitcher did a nice job early on," Caron said.

Two of the hits the Mustang righty gave up were perfectly placed in the infield. Walks proved to be costly to DeFilippis (four walks, five strikeouts). He issued a leadoff walk to Nick Kiedaisch in the bottom of the third and after Kiedaisch was out on Sam Ellinwood's fielder's choice ground ball, Terzian hit a two-run home run over the left field fence to give Staples a 2-0 lead.

"I got a pitch I could hit, and I hit it on the right side of the bat, and it went over the fence," Terzian said.

Dan Warren and Dario Pugliano made defensive plays for the Mustangs at shortstop and third base, respectively. Warren created a double play in the second inning to keep Staples off the scoreboard by stepping on second and throwing to first for the out.

Pugliano (2-3) was consistent in the field and got Warde's first hit of the game with a single to center in the fourth.

The Wreckers made it 3-0 in the fourth inning because of James Frusciante's speed. Frusciante beat out a leadoff grounder for an infield hit, stole second and third base and scored on Marco Romero's single to left field.

Romero was 2-3 at the plate, but his biggest play came in right field in the top of the fifth inning. Warde had runners on first and second after DeFilippis' single with one out when Anthony Miller hit a line drive that looked like it was going to drop. Romero made a diving catch to rob Miller and keep it a three-run game.

Staples broke it open in the bottom of fifth. Ellinwood led off with a walk and scored on Terzian's double to center field.

DeFilippis hit Matt Reynolds with one out. Frusciante then reached on a fielder's choice to erase Reynolds with Terzian moving to third.

The pesky Frusciante then helped manufacture a run by stealing second, which enabled Terzian to swipe home. On the throw, Frusciante took third.

With two outs, Eli Andrew reached on Warren's throwing error and Frusciante scored.

"It's been our demise all year," Caron said. "You can't give a team like Staples free outs and extra base runners and that's what we did today."

Shane Goven pitched a perfect sixth inning for Warde and had two strikeouts.

Joe Bartolomeo homered for Warde in the seventh inning. Following a Mustang single, righty Greg Salamone relieved Speer and closed out the Mustangs.

The Mustangs hope to get back on the winning track today at New Canaan.

"We've done a good job of bouncing back, and we haven't lost back-to-back games yet this year," Caron said. "We hope it continues."