Junior catcher Nick Ficarella hit his first home run of the season over the new fence at Churchville-Chili and added an RBI sacrifice fly to pace his Saints to a 12-6 win over Gates Chili.
Shortstop Kevin VanDongen knocked in Billy Sanborn, who had doubled, with a fielder’s choice for the first Saints’ run during a four-run first. Matt Brown also scored on an overthrow by the outfield, Ficarella plated Luke Tomczyk and Joe Maira had an opposite field single to drive in VanDongen to stake the Saints to a 4-0 lead.
They extended their lead to 6-0 in the second inning as VanDongen knocked in Anthony Lewis, who led off the inning with a single, and Brown later scored on a wild pitch.
John Trubia and Brown both had two-RBI singles during a four run third to make it 10-0 before Ficarella bombed his two-run home run over the left field fence in the sixth inning to finish the scoring.
Sophomore right-hanger Scott Neu scattered six hits, walked four and was charged with six runs allowed over six-plus innings of work. Olympia scored three of those six in the sixth inning without getting a ball out of the infield.
After Olympia scored two more in the seventh inning to close to 12-6, the game ended on a bases-loaded pop fly to short center field that shortstop VanDongen made an over-the-shoulder catch on and fired a strike to the plate to double up the runner trying to score from third.
