Malden High School’s boys baseball team faced off against O’Bryant on Apr. 13 at Pine Banks. After a well played game on a beautiful day, the team fell short losing 6-4. MHS starting pitcher was junior Brian Batting. Coming in as a relief pitcher in the second inning was freshman Jared Martino who took the mound for the first time in his high school career finishing the game with five strikeouts. To finish the game was sophomore Matt Geer who threw two strikeouts in his first varsity appearance as well. Martino and senior Kyle Gillis helped the team out at the plate both knocking in one run each alongside junior Ronnie Luke who batted in two runs.
The team moved on to their next game Wed. Apr. 15 against Medford High School which was their first Greater Boston League game of the season. Malden included four different pitchers that game including Luke, Batting, Geer, and junior Thomas Hannafin who took the mound for the first time as a varsity pitcher. Luke made one of the two hits that the team had during the game, knocking in junior Robert Collins who got walked and became the only run scored for Malden. MHS fell short 1-9, losing their first GBL game to Medford but anxious for their next game.
MHS played Triton Regional High School on Fri. Apr. 17 at Pine Banks, MHS’s third home game in a row. Geer was the starting pitcher and although the team lost 0-2, they put up a tough fight.
They kept their heads up after starting off 0-4 as they squared off with East Boston on Apr. 20, which was two of MHS’s five wins last season. Martino stepped up that game on the mound and at the plate, bringing MHS their first win of the season. Hitting two balls out of the park that day and knocking in three runs as well as throwing six strikeouts. Coming in to close the game off was Gillis. Martino stated that “seeing the team and coach Carp pumped felt really great” after being their first winning pitcher.
Two days later MHS lost to Lawrence 2-17, their toughest game of the season. Going through three pitchers starting with Luke then Batting and Hannafin. Making the team hungry to redeem themselves and play their next game.
MHS won their second game of the season against O’Bryant with the final score of 6-3. Geer took the mound and put on a display striking out 13 batters that game, the most thrown by a MHS pitcher this season. He also went 2-4 from the plate hitting a double and a triple while knocking in a run. The team went 2-2 during April break.
To end of the month of April the Malden High School baseball team played back to back games. On Apr. 29 the boys played Somerville High School, which is only their second Greater Boston League game of the season so far, both teams standing in at 0-1 in their league. Sophomore Matt Geer took the mound with junior Liam Elliot behind the plate, winning his second game and the team’s third game. MHS won 10-2, making them now 1-1 in the GBL.
The next day on Apr. 30 the team traveled to Triton to face off for the second time this season. After losing to Triton the first time just 2-0, they seemed to have redeemed themselves when leading 2-0 but as the game unraveled MHS ended up losing 6-2. Bringing their season record to this point, 3-6 needing seven more wins to qualify for the state tournament.
MHS faced off against GBL rival Everett on Tue. May 5 in which it was a heated battle to the finish.
With plenty of baseball left to be played the team is standing in a record of 3-6, needing eight more wins to qualify for the state tournament.
