St. Andrew’s Records Third Shutout To Start the Season

Justin Valente and the rest of the St. Andrew’s Scots have roared out of the gate this season.

Heading into this season, the St. Andrew’s Scots altered their usual offensive approach.

While the team has relied on power hitting and pitching as its bread and butter, this year it has switched to an aggressive running attack to manufacture runs.

So far the results speak for themselves.

This is the best start that St. Andrew’s has gotten off to in recent years, as best as Manager George Sands can recall.

A near-perfect, 12-0 performance over host Sheridan Hills pushed the Scots to 3-0 on Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile the team has yet to allow a run this season, recording its third straight shutout to begin the year.

“We have some speed we haven’t had the last couple of years,” said Sands. “They want to run. We’ve got guys who can steal bases and we’re going to take advantage of that. We know we’re going to be in close games and we’re going to be extremely aggressive to put ourselves in situations to score runs.”

In Tuesday’s victory the Scots swiped seven bases, often taking off early in the counts and putting tons of pressure on the defense to stop them.

Ricci Rocca helped set the tone in the to of the first inning, as he reached on a fielder’s choice groundout and then quickly stole second base and also advanced to third on a passed ball.

His older brother Ronnie Rocca then walked and also stole second, and both brothers came in to score when Justin Valente launched a shot to left field for a ground-rule double and a 2-0 lead that would be all the runs the Scots would need.

Sophomore Ricci Rocca had a big two-RBI double and also scored three runs in the Scots 12-0 win.

The Rocca brothers were at it again in the third inning, as St. Andrew’s sent 12 hitters to the plate during an eight-run onslaught that helped to put the game out of reach.

Ricci Rocca doubled with the bases loaded to push Trevor Wexner and Cal Bocchino across the plate, and Ronnie followed by dropping a two-RBI single into shallow right field.

Wexner also connected for a double in the inning.

Meanwhile Scots starter Zach Moses did not allow a hit in his three full innings of work, picking up the victory after limiting the Sharks (0-3) to a pair of walks while picking up seven strikeouts.

Moses also helped set the tone defensively early on, coming up with a nice play in the bottom of the first inning. After walking Sheridan Hills’ leadoff hitter Thomas Davis, Moses snared a one-out, line-drive from D.P. Ward and then quickly fired the ball to first base to pick off Davis for the inning-ending double play.

“We have not given up a run yet because of our pitching and our defense,” Sands said. “I’m real proud of Zach. He’s throwing really well this year and his velocity has been real good. He’s going to be our guy this year.”

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