Seifert, Calvert Hall stand tall in MIAA A baseball playoff opener

Ryan Seifert got Calvert Hall’s baseball team’s postseason off to an impressive start Friday.

The senior righthander hurled a 5-0 complete game shutout of 14th-ranked Mount St. Joseph in the first round of the MIAA A Conference double elimination tournament playoffs Friday on the Gaels’ home diamond in Irvington.

The Cardinals (16-11 overall) advance to a 4:30 p.m. contest Monday at top seeded and fourth ranked Archbishop Curley in East Baltimore.

Seifert is only 5-foot-8 and 160 six pounds and his fast ball comes into home plate in the low 80′s. He’s not a pro prospect, but rather a very good high school pitcher with a lot of poise, confidence and most of the time throws strikes.

Those assets were on display yesterday at the Mount. Mostly mixing a slider that had a lot of bite at times with a changeup that kept the Gaels (12-10) off balance, Seifert masterfully yielded six hits, struck out five and walked two on just 82 pitches.

He never got into any serious trouble with the exception of possibly the first inning when he stranded two runners and later getting the last out of the third inning on a fly ball he proceeded to set down 11 batters in succession. That string of outs carried into the seventh when he notched the first of two strikeouts, the first and last batters to bring down the curtain.

“I was ready today and was very confident and knew my teammates would back me up, like CJ’s homer to give us the lead right away, “” said Seifert (2-3) who will play at Shenandoah University. “I knew of course that this was a big game and I had to do my job.”

The Cardinals started Seifert off with a 1-0 lead on No. 3 batter CJ Garrick’s two-out solo dong.

Calvert Hall’s first year coach Brooks Kerr, who was previously a longtime assistant under Lou Eckerl (retired at end of last season), expected Seifert to get the job done.

“Ryan competes like no one we’ve ever had here at the Hall,” said Kerr. “Ryan and our pitching in general has been solid, but we just had not been getting the hits that counted until today. And we had an unbelievable amount of injuries this season. I’m expecting some great things the rest of the way because we’ve got an edge now.”

The timely hitting Kerr was talking about included knocks by Garrick, who had homered in the first, a single in the seventh to drive in a run, a sac fly by Conner Keys and another single by EJ Hankerson produced a run as the Redbirds iced the victory in their final at-bat. Calvert Hall took a 2-0 lead into the seventh having added the second run in the fourth on a throwing error by the Gaels.

St. Joe’s sophomore lefty Collin Park pitched into the sixth before giving way to righthander Lou Clausen. Park pitched well having given up just one earned run on the Garrick dinger and only four hits leaving with his team down 2-0.

“Collin pitched well, kept us in the game, never losing his composure, " said Gaels’ coach Phil Kraska. “We had a great season and finished on a positive going 5-2 over the second half of the season.”

Mount St. Joseph moves into the loser bracket where it will play at Gilman Monday afternoon. John Carroll knocked off the Greyhounds, 5-2, in the other opening round match Friday in Bel Air.

The Patriots (13-10) will travel to defending champ and No. 1 Archbishop Spalding in a winners’ bracket contest Monday afternoon.

MIAA A CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

First Round

CALVERT HALL 5, No. 14 MOUNT ST. JOSEPH 0

CALVERT HALL 100 100 3 - 5 8 0

MOUNT ST.JOE 000 000 0 - 0 6 2

CH - Ryan Seifert and Brennan Kwiatkowski

MSJ - Collin Park and Jack Bieda

2B - Tom Pilarski (CH)

HR - CJ Garrick (CH)