Shamrocks earn (sort of) lead in St. John's senior semifinal series

The OMT Shamrocks rapped out a dozen hits to back the complete-game pitching of southpaw Greg Barry as they doubled Holy Cross Trinity Pub 8-4 Wednesday night at St. Pat’s Ball Park to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five St. John’s semifinal.

The winner of the series advances to take on the RMM Gonzaga Vikings for the league championship.

Only two of the four runs given up by Barry (3H, 3W, 5K, 2HB) were earned.

That was even more of a story for Holy Cross pitchers. Crusaders’ starter Justin Crawley (5IP, 11H, 1W, 3K, 2HB) was charged with seven runs, but six of them were unearned. And the lone run given up by reliever Gerry Stone was also unearned.

Redmond Hunt drove in two runs on three singles for Shammies, while Eric McKay had two RBIs for Holy Cross.

The two-time defending champion Shamrocks can take the series with a win in Game 4, set for 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Pat’s.