Baseball: Stagg Drops an Ace on Shepard

Touching All the Bases: Stagg started early with two quick runs in the first inning of an 8-2 victory over rival Shepard on Tuesday. Dan Ahern took advantage of a wild pitch and then Ahern was driven in on a Max Orant double. The Chargers added two more in the third and opened up the game with a four-run fourth. The Astros scored two runs in the sixth on a single by Justin Madrigal.

Patch's MVP: Stagg's Brad Clark pitched five innings, struck out 10 and gave up two hits in his winning effort. Clark went 1-for-3 at the plate with three runs scored. He singled, walked, reached on a fielder's choice and flew out to right.

Stagg Leaders: Besides Clark, Ahern was 2-for-5 with two runs scored. Orant was 2-for-4 with an RBI. 

Shepard Leaders: Justin Madrigal was 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Devin Bishop was 1-for-3 with a single and a run scored.

Quotable I: Stagg coach Matt O'Neill: "We're not very big in terms of stature, so our approach was to do the little things. Dan Ahern had a great bunt hit, and we took advantage of their mistakes and limited our strikeouts. We've been dying to get out and play. We're ready to go the rest of the way."

Quotable II: Shepard coach Frank DiFoggio: "We're very inexperienced. I only have two guys with varsity at-bats last year. We have a lot of sophomores in the starting lineup. We know it's going to be a struggle at the beginning of the year. We'll have our good days and our bad days, and especially when you have a dominant pitcher, he'll overmatch 'green' guys like us."

Team Records: Stagg starts off at 1-0. Shepard falls to 0-2.

What's Next: Shepard will host Bloom at 4:30 p.m. on Friday, and Stagg will host Simeon Wednesday.