Piners get their first win, though it wasn't easy
BY MIKE WHITE
Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD - The Lakewood High School pitching staff baffled the Manchester lineup last Wednesday, as the Piners posted a 5-4 victory to register their first win of the 2007 season.

Joe Curry, Jose Colon and Kenny Nieves combined for a no-hitter as Lakewood improved to 1-3 overall. In addition to allowing no hits, the trio of pitchers combined to strike out five and walk 10.

"It was a nice win for us," LHS assistant coach Vinnie Currao said. "Our guys did a nice job of keeping their lineup off-balance. They're a good hitting club and we just shut them down. However, we gave up too many walks and that almost came back to haunt us."

Curry struck out four batters in 4 1/3 innings before giving way to Colon, who pitched two-thirds of an inning. Nieves finished the game, working out of jams in both the sixth and seventh innings.

"Nieves did a real nice job of getting out of trouble," Currao said. "He kept his composure and made good pitches and got big outs when he needed to."

Lakewood scored one run in the first inning. Jimmy D'Aloia singled, stole second, and eventually scored on a Justin Rafferty RBI groundout. The Piners added three more runs in the second frame.

LHS, which has struggled at the plate in the early season, took advantage of scoring opportunities.

"We had some nice base running and we capitalized on some of their mistakes with runners in scoring position," Currao said. "We moved up on a couple of passed balls and wild pitches. We knew they were going to be a good club, so we were ready to jump on any scoring chances that came our way."

Rafferty drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. Manchester answered with three runs in the fifth. A pair of Lakewood errors aided the Manchester rally.

"We can't afford to make mistakes like that against a team like this," Currao said. "We can't give teams four and five outs in an inning and expect to win. We'll continue to work on our defense."

Manchester entered the contest undefeated with a 5-0 mark.

"They've been playing good baseball in the early going," Currao said. "But our guys just silenced their bats. If we didn't walk 10 of their batters, we could have handled them a little bit easier."

Lakewood squared off against Monsignor Donovan yesterday and is slated to meet Central Friday and Point Boro Saturday.

"This is a tough week ahead of us," Currao said. "We have our work cut out for us. We need to cut down on the errors and swing the bats a little better than we have been in order to have a good week."

Mike Muth is leading the Piners offensively. Muth is batting close to .400, Currao said.

"He is swinging the bat well," Currao said. "We need to get a couple of more guys on board. We only have 12 or 13 hits through four games. It's difficult to win games that way. It puts a lot of pressure on our pitching staff and defense if we can't score runs."