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| Fran Phelan Jr. has won 20 straight games for Holy Cross. He improved to 5-0 in the 2018 season with a 4-0 victory over Sacred Heart on Monday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69, 2017 file) |
For his last 20 games, it hasn’t mattered when or where Fran Phelan Jr. has pitched for Holy Cross baseball.
All the senior ace has done is win for the Crusaders.
Phelan won his 20th straight game with a dominant complete-game performance in a 4-0 victory over Sacred Heart on Monday night under the lights of Municipal Stadium. Phelan allowed a pair of singles to the Hearts, one by Justin Stephens in the second inning and the other from Hector Alejandro in the seventh.
That’s it. Other than those two hits and a Holy Cross error in the field, Phelan was Phelan. He threw 93 pitches, 70 of which went for strikes. Twenty-four batters stepped to the plate against the right-hander, and 17 saw a first-pitch strike. Phelan struck out 13, walked none and hit none.
Phelan’s effort overshadowed a good performance from Alejandro, who kept Holy Cross scoreless in the first four innings. In the top of the fifth, the Crusaders scratched across a run. Justin Alamo got on base leading off, then stole second base. Alamo got to third on a grounder off the bat of John Greene, then scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Will Greene.
Holy Cross picked up two more runs in the sixth. Corey Fappiano walked with one out, then Austin Brown reached on an error. An Alamo walk loaded the bases, and Fappiano scored on a sacrifice fly from John Green. Will Greene followed with an RBI single to bring in Brown and increase the Crusader lead to 3-0.
Brian Parzcyk’s RBI single in the seventh scored Tim Zupkus with the final run. Zupkus reached first on a dropped third strike leading off the inning.
Holy Cross improved to 16-2 and moved closer to the top seed in the NVL Tournament. Sacred Heart dropped to 11-8. Alejandro took the loss for the Hearts. He pitched the first 5 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on three hits. He struck out nine and walked four.
