By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

CUMBERLAND – Although he had a little help from his opponent, Jeff Buress didn’t need much.

On a cold, brisk Wednesday afternoon, Buress was red hot, lifting Cumberland to a 4-3 season-opening victory over Saint Raphael Academy in a Division I contest at Tucker Field. The Clipper senior finished his day’s work tossing a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts.
“I was able to locate my change-up,” he said, “and that pretty much helped me today.”
“He pitched phenomenal,” said CHS coach Paul Murphy. “For the first game, he was getting his pitches over the plate…Twelve (strikeouts) out of 21 outs, that’s pretty good. But we played pretty good defense behind him. They had some hard hit groundballs and we made some nice plays. We didn’t hurt them in the field.”
The Clippers defense was nearly flawless for the afternoon with just one error.
It included two pickoff attempts by catcher Matt Milano and some impressive stabs by shortstop Brad Bowe.
Unfortunately for the Saints, their defense wasn’t quite the same. Like Buress, SRA starting pitcher Doug Hopper was solid on the mound, allowing seven hits and striking out seven. But the defense behind him committed three errors, all of which resulted in the first three runs for the Clippers.

“I told the guys, at this point of the season we have to rely on our pitching and defense,” said Saints coach Tom Sorrentine. “Our defense let us down today. Doug pitched well enough for us to win, but they didn’t play defense behind him.”
Buress, who was the ace of the staff for last year’s team that compiled an 11-7 record and tied Saints in II-North, managed to get out of a crucial jam in the first inning, providing the righthander with some extra confidence. With runners at second and third and one out, Buress buckled down striking out the final two batters of the frame. He finished the inning with four Ks, which was made possible when his third strike to leadoff batter John Robbins got by Milano, who tossed too high to first baseman Derek Paul, allowing Robbins the freebie.
“The first inning is always my toughest inning,” Buress said. “I’m usually a little wild, but I was able to come back and strikeout the final two guys and that felt good.”
Cumberland managed to score its first three runs, courtesy of the bottom of order. With one out in the second, No. 7 batter Derek Paul slashed a double to centerfield. Bowe followed with an infield single that fell between shortstop Brendan DeCesare and second baseman Nick Gaj. The Clippers then made it 1-0 on Saints’ first error of the contest. Paul was plated when ninth-batter Jesse Poon’s hard grounder was fielded by Hopper, who tossed too high to first baseman Drew Givens. The next gaffe, and the next run, came on the next batter when leadoff Ryan Innarelli hit a grounder to third baseman Mike Dolan, which Dolan misfired to first, allowing Bowe to score.
After SRA cut the deficit in half, scoring on an RBI single by Gaj in the top of the third, Cumberland took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the inning with Bowe scoring again. He got on base with a one-out single and was plated when Innarelli’s hit to DeCesare was thrown into the stands by the shortstop.    
“I thought we were going to be pretty good on defense,” Sorrentine said. “We just didn’t do it today. There were a lot of misplaced balls. I think we can play better that that.”
To Saint’s credit, despite getting overpowered by Buress throughout the game, they did make things interesting. Trailing by its two-run deficit, SRA managed to tie the game with two runs in the top of the seventh before a game-winning RBI single from Buress in the bottom of the frame.
With one out in the seventh, Buress ran into a little control problems, issuing a walk to Decesare and hitting Dolan with a pitch. The two players then advanced to second and third on a wild pitch by the Cumberland pitcher. Descesare came home on an RBI groundout by Robinson. Dolan scored the tying run on a freak play when Tom Votta connected on a pitch that hit the plate and made a weird bounce that fell about 10 feet short of CHS third baseman Bruce Altieri. Votta was later picked off on a throw by Buress to end the inning.
Innarelli got things off to a good start in the bottom of the inning for the Clippers with a double to short center. Flanigan followed with a bunt single and Milano loaded the bases on a walk before Buress delivered the clincher. On a 1-1 pitch, the senior hit a hard grounder to second that was too tough for Gaj to handle.
“Games like this, when you put the ball in play, you never can tell what happens, especially this early in the season,” Murphy said. “It’s a good start. I just wish we could have finished it a little better in the seventh. It was a little disappointing that they tied the game in the seventh. It was a little bit of bad luck, but we showed a lot of character coming back and winning the game.”
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St. Raphael Academy 001 000 2 – 3 4 3
Cumberland 020 100 1 – 4 7 0
SRA, Doug Hopper and John Robbins. C, Jeff Buress and Matt Milano. 2B – SRA, Nick Gaj, Hopper. C, Derek Paul, Ryan Innarelli.