Behind the solid pitching of ace Roman Mitchell and patience and clutch hitting at the plate, Bellarmine cruised to an 11-1 season-opening win over Shelton on March 19.

After surrendering an unearned run on a passed ball in the first inning, Mitchell went on to pitch five innings, allowing just two hits and one walk with eight strikeouts – retiring the last 13 batters he faced.

“I had a little cut on my ball today, so that made it nice. I could run it at their hip and cut back across,” Mitchell said. “It was feeling good…I just kept staying in the zone, didn’t really change anything.”

“Roman threw well, threw strikes,” said Lions head coach Rick Barnhart. “The best pitch in baseball is a strike. When you throw a lot of strikes good things happen.”

Connor Jensen got the Lions on the board with a two-run single in the bottom of the second and finished 2-for-3 with a double, run scored and two RBIs. George Foley delivered a two-run single in the bottom of the fourth, and Harry Stenberg followed with an RBI single to make it 6-1 and knock out Shelton starter Pat Fabrizio. Stenberg and Foley each finished 2-for-3 with a walk, one run scored and two RBIs.

“(Foley) can really swing it,” said Barnhart, adding that the former transfer was playing his first varsity game. “It was good to get him going and have him finally play here.”

All-league third baseman Daniel Pollastro capped off the scoring in the bottom of the sixth with a two-run double that made it 11-1 to force the 10-run rule. Pollastro finished 3-for-4 with the double, a walk, three runs scored and two RBIs.

“We’re a lot different team,” said Mitchell. “Our goal this year is to win league. We’ve all been working hard…we wanted to come out here and make a good stand in the first league game.”

3/19/12 SHELTON @ BELLARMINE BOX SCORE

BELLARMINE 11, SHELTON 1

SHELTON

BELLARMINE