Panthers fall to Townies despite Fijal’s gem

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Scoring runs has been the least of Johnston’s worries in the first weeks of the baseball season, scoring a total of 22 runs in its first pair of games.

But the Panthers’ bats cooled down in a big way on Tuesday afternoon, as East Providence right-hander, Kyle Marquis, no-hit Johnston en route to it losing its first game of the season, 1-0.

Korey Fijal hurled a gem on the bump for Johnston as the tough-luck loser, going the distance in a complete-game effort. The senior pitched about as well as he could have, allowing just four hits and no walks.

When it was all said and done, it was hard to believe that an effort like that didn’t result in a victory.

“If you don’t hit, you can’t win,” Johnston head coach Steve DeMeo said. “I just feel bad for Korey. He throws a four-hitter and 75 pitches – it’s what you want in the big scheme of things. We just couldn’t put two at-bats together – we had bad at-bats.”

But despite not getting a hit in the game, the Panthers did draw six walks – three of which came in the first inning.

Marquis loaded the bases in the top of the first, as he struggled to command the zone, but struck out the side to escape the jam unscathed.

Little did Johnston know that its opportunity in the first inning would be its best of the game.

After that, Marquis and Fijal were in complete control of the game.

EP put together a small rally in the third, but much like Marquis in the first, Fijal was able to come up with a strikeout when he needed it to keep the game scoreless.

But Fijal wasn’t so fortunate in the bottom of the fifth.

The Townies were finally able to break the stalemate with some old-fashioned small ball.

Shortstop Adam Duarte led off the inning with a line drive to left-centerfield for a double. From there, EP was able to manufacture a run through sound fundamentals.

Tyler Maxwell proceeded Duarte in the order and laid down a perfect bunt to move Duarte over to third.

That set up a sacrifice fly to centerfield off the bat of Jordan Gibson that was just deep enough to score Duarte from third.

Just like that, it was 1-0 EP, and that proved to be all that Marquis would need.

Marquis breezed through the sixth, before working around a one-out walk in the seventh to secure the no-hitter. He finished the game with 12 strikeouts.

Johnston struggled with its approach at the plate in the loss, often taking hittable fastballs down the middle – a rarity for a red-hot offense coming into the game.

“We took too many pitches, and we aren’t that type of team,” DeMeo said. “We have to be more aggressive. We’ve been aggressive up until this point, but I guess you have to give (Marquis) the credit. He had us off-balance all day.”

Steve Pennacchia led the Panthers offensively, drawing two walks against Marquis.

Jared Estrella paced the Townies, as he registered two of the team’s four hits at the top of the lineup.

With the loss, Johnston is still in good shape at 2-1, and will look to get back on track today at Cumberland at 4 p.m.

Hitting was going to be the focal point of Wednesday’s practice prior to the game against the Clippers.

“We have to hit better,” DeMeo said. “You have to have a mindset when you go up to the plate. It seemed like we took too many pitches right down the middle. We’re going to do a lot of hitting tomorrow. Cumberland will be tough – they were good last year and have almost all of their guys back. But we’ll be ready.”

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