AUBURN — It was a tossup Thursday evening which segment of Jimmy Theriault’s game was a bigger highlight for the St. Dom’s baseball team:
• His 420-foot blast to straightaway center field, a double that unofficially went into the books as the deepest drive in the nine-year history of the Saints’ baseball complex; or,
• The way he commanded the 60 feet, six inches between the pitcher’s mound and home plate during four innings of stellar relief.
Theriault went 3-for-3 with an RBI, and he shut out Monmouth on two hits during his time on the hill, sparking the No. 1 Saints to a 6-2 Western Class C quarterfinal victory over the No. 8 Mustangs.
“I wasn’t too, too concerned,” Theriault said. “But I had to stop the bleeding.”
Monmouth carved out a 2-1 lead through St. Dom’s starter Zak Johnson’s three innings of work, taking advantage of leadoff doubles by Josh Fournier in the second and Kyle Fletcher in the third.
Theriault replaced his sophomore classmate and didn’t immediately fare better, surrendering a line-drive single by Billy Cummings to start the fourth.
But a sacrifice bunt, a strikeout and a groundout got the Saints out of the inning and started a streak of 11 consecutive batters retired by Theriault.
D.J. McHugh broke the spell with a two-out single in the seventh. Theriault responded by catching Devin West leering at strike three — the fifth punchout of his relief stint — to end it.
“He threw hard and he threw strikes,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said of Theriault. “I watched (Monmouth) take batting practice and I knew they wanted to go the other way. They were waiting on the soft stuff. They had seen Zak. They had seen Kurt (Johnson, St. Dom’s ace). And like I said to the team, sometimes in the playoffs you have to make those mid-game adjustments.”
St. Dom’s ability to adapt on the fly earned the Saints (15-2) a home semifinal date with No. 4 Telstar at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Saints will be bidding for their ninth consecutive trip to the regional championship game.
Their third victory this season over Monmouth (10-7) was the most difficult and most grueling. The game itself (1 hour, 40 minutes) was shorter than the thunder, lightning and rain delay (1 hour, 57 minutes) that halted the proceedings after only two pitches in the top of the first inning.
“We played well. We didn’t beat ourselves,” Monmouth coach Eric Palleschi said. “We didn’t lose it. We made them win it.”
Two-out singles by Kurt Johnson and Theriault, sandwiched around a wild pitch, tied it 2-2 in the fourth.
Fletcher, who pitched a three-hitter through four innings, hit Danny Nadeau with a pitch to start the fifth.
Zak Johnson’s sacrifice and a groundout by pinch hitter Matt Roy left the Saints’ rally up to Alex Parker, who sliced a 2-1 pitch down the right field line for a go-ahead triple.
“They had been playing me to right center all day. I saw that even the second baseman was playing close to the bag,” Parker said. “So I knew there was a big gap over there, and luckily the pitch was on the outside corner.”
Parker crossed the plate on a wild pitch by reliever Jeremy Ashlock to make it a two-run edge.
Theriault’s second two-bagger of the game left a loud impression and led to the first of two insurance runs in the sixth. The ball took one hop and landed against the fence.
“I thought it was out, so I was a little disappointed when it wasn’t,” Theriault said. “But then I realized if I’d hit it anywhere else in the park, it would have been a home run.”
Drew Gosselin’s RBI single made it 5-2. A wild pitch and a catcher’s interference call on a would-be out led to a Zak Johnson sacrifice fly.
McHugh (5-for-6 in two playoff games) had an RBI single in the second for Monmouth. St. Dom’s answered in the bottom of the inning when Theriault doubled, advanced to third when the ball was mishandled and scored on Gosselin’s fly ball.
Roger Bachelder’s sacrifice fly plated Fletcher to restore the Monmouth lead in the second.
St. Dom’s played error-free ball after the second inning, highlighted by freshman second baseman Caleb Dostie’s diving stab of a Cummings line drive to end the sixth.
“They didn’t make it easy for us,” Blackman said. “I thought the best part for us was that’s the best Jimmy Theriault has pitched all year.”
koakes@sunjournal.com
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