Prep baseball: Marin Catholic gains ground on Redwood

Marin Catholic pitcher Liam Smith, at 6-feet, 7-inches tall, is an imposing figure on the mound.

Smith, however, didn’t need to be overpowering Tuesday in a crucial MCAL baseball contest against visiting Redwood.

Instead, the rangy right-hander mixed a nasty overhand curve with his explosive fastball and blanked the Giants over six innings as the Wildcats moved a game closer to league-leading Redwood with a tidy 3-0 victory. Both teams have two losses heading into Friday’s rematch at Redwood but the Giants (14-5, 9-2 MCAL) have played two more games than MC (12-5, 7-2).

“(Smith) did a great job,” Marin Catholic coach Jessie Foppert said. “His secondary pitch (the curve) was good early and that was huge for him. He had some three-ball counts in the early innings but I thought he got better as the game went on.”

Smith breezed through the first three innings, facing one over the minimum batters.

“He had his A-stuff working for him today,” said Carl Schmidt, who worked the seventh inning and needed just nine pitches to retire the Giants in order. “You can’t ask more from your starter than that – to throw six scoreless innings.”

Smith struck out four, walked two and was the beneficiary of flawless defense behind him, including a slick snag of a hot shot by third baseman Miguel Lopez in the third.

Redwood starter Rory Minty, a sneaky-fast southpaw, seemed up to the challenge of matching his counterpart with zeroes. Minty breezed through the first inning — three up, three down — and needed only five pitches to do it.

But MC clean-up hitter Brad Burnes changed the complexion of the contest in the blink of an eye to lead off the second. Burnes lofted a 2-2 fastball down the left-field line and the deep fly narrowly cleared the fence for a homer for the only run the Wildcats would need.

Marin Catholic threatened again in the third when Lopez led off with a looping single over shortstop and Maddox Thompson was nicked by a pitch.

Minty buckled down determinedly to retire the heart of the MC lineup to escape the jam unscathed.

He wasn’t quite so fortunate in the fifth, mostly because of a gritty 12-pitch at-bat by Schmidt.

Lopez led off the inning with his second single, a flare down the right-field line, and Thompson scorched a shot over the second baseman for another single.

Schmidt fouled off six pitches before lacing a line drive into the left-center field power alley for a two-run double.

“I had runners in scoring position and I was not going to give in on that at-bat,” Schmidt said. “I fouled off a bunch of borderline pitches waiting for my pitch. And I finally got it.”

Martin Catholic collected seven hits off Minty, who went the distance and struck out five.

“Schmidt fought off some pitches and did a great job on that at-bat,” Foppert said. “That’s the kind of at-bat you hope for when one of your best hitters is at the plate.”