Madera Leads with Arm and Bat in 9-4 Win Over Holyoke

MANCHESTER – Kevin Madera (Newington) struck out eight over six shutout innings and hit a home run as Manchester CC (9-19, 3-2) beat Holyoke CC 9-4 in a Region 21, division game Friday afternoon.

Alec Brown (Montville) was 4 for 4 with four runs scored and two stolen bases while Chris Rivera (New Britain) had three singles and two RBI for the Cougars.
Jose Ortiz had two singles and scored a pair of runs for Holyoke (11-10, 3-3).

“He threw real well,” MCC head coach Chris Strahowski said of Madera, who improved to 2-1 on the season. “It’s still early enough in the season where we didn’t need to stretch him out any further.”

Madera hit for himself and left his seventh start with a solid 7-0 lead. He helped his cause with a line drive homer with two out and nobody on base in the bottom of the sixth. The 2010 NJCAA DIII ERA champion lowered his 2011 ERA to 0.73 and has now fanned 58 batters over 21 innings.

The win was Strahowski’s 200th as at MCC. The former Central Connecticut State lefty is in his 12th season at Manchester and has compiled a 200-167-3 record with three Region 21 Division III championships.

“I didn’t even think about it,” Strahowski said shortly after assistant coach Shawn Barry hit him with a shaving cream pie. “At the beginning of the season I knew how far it was away, but I didn’t expect it to be this far away in April, so it completely slipped my mind.”

The Cougars, who have won three of their last four but have struggled at time with losing streak of four and six games, scored four times in the fourth inning and collected 14 hits in their second win in as many days.

“We came out swinging,” Strahowski said. “That’s the kind of offense we thought we were putting together at the beginning of the year – hitting one through nine, moving guys over. It was a good job all around.”

The Cougars travel to Massasoit CC Saturday and Bunker Hill CC Sunday for a pair of Region 21 Division III doubleheaders that could shed new light on the region 21 Division III tournament picture. Manchester is will host the four-team event May 6-8.

Holyoke CC (11-10, 3-3) 000 000 311 4 10 2
Manchester CC (9-19, 3-2) 041 011 20x 9 14 1
H – Ryan Magni, John Kier (5), Robbie Sjodahl (7) and Anthony Collins.
M – Kevin Madera, Tyler Kapushinski (7), Brian Levchuk (8), Mike Methot (9) and Kyle Holland
WP Madera 2-1, LP Magni.