Arencibia continues no-hit pitching in Rummel win over St. Aug

NEW ORLEANS – Good pitching beats good hitting. Great pitching is another story unto itself.

The story for Archbishop Rummel is Tulane signee Giancarlo Arencibia.

The senior pitched a no-hitter in Rummel’s District 9-5A opener in a 3-0 win over John Curtis Christian a week ago.

A week later, Arencibia was equally as brilliant, though he could not finish the job.

Arencibia pitched five innings of no-hit ball, striking out 11 as Rummel downed St. Augustine 5-2 in a game Tuesday night aired live on The Ticket 106.1 FM.

Arencibia came out after throwing 98 pitches in five innings. He walked three and hit a batter and it came after he threw 118 pitches in his last outing.

“I thought Giancarlo pitched extremely well for us,” Rummel coach Frank Cazeaux said. “He set the tone of the game for us. We came out swinging the bats. We had opportunities to break it open and did not. I thought we did a great job of bunting and that was important for us. St. Augustine is a good team and they will give us real problems Thursday. Having Gavin Kennedy back and getting healthier is important. He’s not totally back from his hamate bone injury but he can really help us.”

Rummel jumped on the Purple Knights early.

Ruben Ramirez led off the game with a single and LSU commit Mikey Ryan was hit by a pitch. Louisiana Tech commit Gavin Nix singled go right but Amare Cooper threw out Ramirez at the plate trying to score. Tulane commit Even Burg picked up his teammates, ripping a double to deep left field, scoring Ryan and Nix to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead after one inning.

Rummel matched the first inning with two in the second. Kennedy drew a walk, stole second and advanced to third on a single by Brandt Frey. Ramirez executed a successful safety squeeze bunt, scoring Kennedy to make it 3-0 before Nix singled to right, scoring Frey and it was 4-0.

The Raiders added a run in the top of the third on a walk to Kennedy, a single by Brogan Blum and another excellent safety squeeze bunt by Frey, scoring Kennedy and it was 5-0.

Arencibia was dominant, not allowing a ball to be hit out of the infield but he used 98 pitches and Cazeaux went to Coleman Capaci in the sixth inning.

“We want to make sure we have our best fresh and healthy all season,” Cazeaux said.

Coleman Capaci came on in the sixth inning and got in trouble, issuinf a leadoff walk to Tulane commit Bryce Robinson. Kenyon Hughes followed with a single and both advanced on a double steal and Robinson scored on a throwing error while stealing third to make it 5-1. Troy Brown singled home Hughes to make it 5-2 but Capaci got Jayden Jackson to hit into a double play to end the threat.

In the bottom of the seventh, Capaci retired the first two hitters, walked Kenny Rhodes but fanned Ahmed Owens to end it.

Tyrin Kirklin went the distance for the Purple Knights (8-11, 1-2), allowing five runs on six hits with three walks, a hit batter and five strikeouts. Kirkln battled and settled in nicely after the third inning, allowing no runs on just one hit the rest of the way.

“We’ve to do a better job of starting,” St. Augustine coach Barret Rey said. “That was my message to the team. We tried to face guys to prepare for Arencibia but it’s different when you get in the batter’s box. We’ve faced some really good arms this year. We’ve got to do a better job of putting the ball in play. Tyrin settled down and got his second pitch going and that was the difference. Once he got that over, things got better for him.”

Rummel (12-5, 3-0) is currently second in the Select Division I power rankings.

The two teams will meet again in the second game of the series Thursday night at 7 p.m. in a game that you can listen to on The Ticket 106.1 FM and at theticket1061.com.

FINAL
Rummel 221 000 0 — 5 6 2, 7 LOB
St. Aug 000 002 0 — 2 3 0, 4 LOB
WP—Giancarlo Arencibia (4-1)
LP—Tyrin Kirklin
SB—Jayden Jackson-2, Gavin Kennedy-2, Mikey Ryan, Bryce Robinson, Kenyon Hughes
2B—Evan Burg
Time of Game: 2:05