For The Dialog
WILMINGTON – St. Mark’s scored 12 runs on only six hits to get by Cape Henlopen, 12-6, in the quarterfinal round of the state baseball tournament May 26 at Frawley Stadium. The top-seeded Spartans will face No. 4 Dover on Saturday at 7 p.m., also at Frawley.
The Spartans started scoring early, picking up two runs in the first without a hit. Tyler Kaczmarczyk led off with a walk and stole second; he scored on an error. Andrew Reich, who reached on an error, also stole second. After advancing to third on a groundout, he came home on a third-strike wild pitch to rolled too far away from the catcher.
Cape Henlopen, the eighth seed, got to starting pitcher Billy Sullivan in the second as Drew Mulcahy singled and Zachary Dale walked. After another walk, Zachary Gelof stroked a two-out, two-run single. With runners on second and third, Connor Thompson hammered a ball down the first-base line, but Spartans first baseman Matt Theodorakis made the stab to keep it tied.
“I thought the ball was by me and in the corner and they had taken the lead,” Theodorakis said. “I knew I had to make the play.”
St. Mark’s capitalized on the momentum from the play and scored six runs in the bottom of the second. Theodorakis had the big hit, a two-run double with the bases loaded to make it 8-2 after two innings. After that inning, the Spartans had scored eight runs on three hits, four walks, a hit batter and two Cape errors.
The Vikings took advantage of walks and a St. Mark’s error to add two runs in the fourth, but St. Mark’s answered with four in the bottom of the inning on just one hit, a single by Jeremy Vogel.
Chris Ludman relieved Sullivan in the fifth and kept the Vikings off the board until the seventh. Cape had three singles and took advantage of two St. Mark’s errors to score twice.
Cape Henlopen finished the season 14-6.
