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Harry Roy. Photo by Thomas Netzer.
Putnam Science Academy’s baseball team won five of its first six games in this inaugural season. And if the bats led the way for the first four on a Spring Break trip to Myrtle Beach, S.C., the pitching is what paced the Mustangs as the returned to games in the colder New England games last week.
After scoring 51 runs during that 4-0 jaunt through Myrtle Beach, it really was the pitching that stood out as the team split a pair of games with Mitchell College JV and Paramount Academy.
Harry Roy improved to 2-0 with a solid effort last Thursday against Paramount, striking out four in four shutout innings of an 8-1 win. He got into a little bit of two-out trouble in the third, but battled his way into stranding two runners by getting the batter to pop out and end the mini-threat.
“That was a great early-season effort from Harry,” PSA coach Bob Hetu said. “And then Pedro (Torrez) came in and did a tremendous job too. Their efforts were much needed.”
Torrez threw the final three innings, allowing just the one run and striking out three.
The effort of the week though came from Christopher Almanzar. The righthander came on in relief with nobody out in the first inning of Monday’s game against Mitchell College JV, and with the Mustangs having another game scheduled for Tuesday (it was later rained out) plus Paramount on Thursday, “pitched his guts out” according to an impressed teammate watching from the dugout. Almanzar went four innings giving up one run and saving Hetu from having to use multiple arms in a week stacked with games. Enger Paulino followed and gave up one run over three.
“That’s who he is,” Hetu said. “Really talented kid but just kept us in the game. He gave us four great innings; he would’ve gone out and pitched another one because that’s how he is too. But he saved us.”
The Mustangs trailed 8-3 after the first inning then scored a run in the third inning, four in the fourth, and one more in the fifth before finally falling 10-9.
“We showed a lot of character,” Hetu said. “After the first inning, I told them they could lie down and quit or they can ignore the score and play one inning at a time, and play the game the right way. I told them, ‘Let’s creep back in and make it interesting.’”
Jesus Fermin hit a two-run homer, and Ryan Hines had a pair of hits, while Almanzar and Derreck Barrada both had RBI doubles for PSA.
Stephen Nalbandian
Sports Information Director
Putnam Science Academy