STYLE POINTS: Gloucester baseball blanks Winthrop on senior night

May 24—With the regular season winding down and a postseason berth already clinched, style points matter the rest of the way for the Gloucester baseball team.

The Fishermen entered the week with three regular season games remaining, all against teams with sub-.500 records and two against teams in lower divisions. In order to improve its standing in the MIAA State Rankings, Gloucester, which is currently ranked No. 11 in Division 3, not only needs to win those games, it needs to win them by five runs or more to get extra points for margin of victory.

On Monday, the Fishermen did what they needed to do as a five-run bottom of the sixth inning led to an 8-0 win over Winthrop at Nate Ross Field.

"We have to win these games by five runs if we want to move up," Gentile said. "That's our goal and it was good to break it open late to get it done today. Those runs were huge in the sixth inning because we were a little comfortable with a 3-0 lead for most of the game."

The Fishermen were in control all game taking a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth with Brett Moore cruising on the mound, but were still looking to add to the lead in what turned out to be their final at bat.

Gloucester almost squandered an opportunity but Zach Oliver came up big with the bases loaded and two outs, lining a triple to deep right that cleared the bases and extended the Gloucester lead to 6-0.

Danny Hafey followed with his third hit of the day, singling in Oliver and Zach Morris later singled in pinch runner Brayden Francis for an 8-0 lead.

Hafey had a huge day at the plate for the Fishermen, going 3-for-4 and driving in four runs. The senior catcher drove in the first three runs of the game, singling in Oliver in the first, grounding out to second to score Oliver in the third and singling in Jack Costanzo in the fifth.

"Hafey is swinging a hot bat right now and he's seen his RBI numbers climb over the last few weeks," Gentile said. "He hit the ball hard every at bat today."

Costanzo also had three hits for Gloucester and scored twice while Oliver was on base three times on a triple and two walks, scoring three runs. Drew Macchi and Tommy Elliott also had base hits for the Fishermen.

That support was plenty for Moore, who went the distance in under 90 pitches, allowing just three hits and striking out seven. Moore retired the first 11 batters of the game and mostly pitched to contact with his defense playing error free behind him.

"Brett has racked up the strikeout numbers this year but this may have been his best game because he was so efficient," Gentile said. "We don't have too many pitchers get a complete game in under 90 pitches, he was in command all game."

Cotanzo made the defensive play of the day, a leaping stab on a well-placed, check swing blooper that looked like it was going to fall in for a base hit in the fourth inning. Aidan Cornetta covered a lot of ground in right center, chasing down a sixth inning liner to take away potential extra bases.

The Fishermen (12-6) have two regular season games remaining at Salem on Wednesday (4 p.m.) and at Ipswich on Saturday (10 a.m.).