HAVERHILL — Dennis Asselin is listed at No. 3 or 4 on the Whittier Tech pitching depth chart, but yesterday, the junior made his second bid for "staff ace," two-hitting Lynn Tech in a 7-0 victory.
Asselin, now 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 14 innings, went the distance, walking only two.
"He's not a big kid, and he's not going to overpower you, but he's doing a nice job of keeping teams off balance," said Whittier coach Joe Boland, whose club moved to 7-4 with its third straight win. "Here's a kid we had sent down to JV earlier to get some seasoning, and he came out there today and just did a great job."
The Cats needed a clutch mound performance against the 7-2 Tigers after Austin Brodie went eight strong on Friday to beat Greater Lowell, and Dillon Ryan dusted Northeast Monday.
"Dennis came up big, and now we have Austin and A.J. (DeRoche) for the rest of the week, so that's huge," said Boland.
The Cats broke open a 1-0 game with three runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth.
Senior David Campbell delivered the punishing blow, a two-run double deep to right-center for the first two runs.
Brodie was a pain all day with three hits, a run scored and an RBI. Asselin, Steve Clark and Colby Starner all added a pair of hits.
"We hit the ball hard when we had to," said Boland, whose club remains in the chase for the CAC title, two games behind Shawsheen Tech. "We're going to need more of that."
Whittier hosts rival Greater Lawrence Tech tomorrow afternoon.
Whittier 7, Lynn Tech 0
Lynn Tech (0): Rios cf 2-0-1, Mota ss 3-0-0, Morgan 1b 3-0-1, Cora 3b 3-0-0, Pegro lf 3-0-0, Pimental c 2-0-0, Feliz 2b 2-0-0, Leon p 2-0-0, Mercado rf 2-0-0. Totals 22-0-2
Whittier (7): Lafferty 2b 2-1-1, J. Starner 2b 1-0-0, DeRoche ss 3-1-1, Ryan ph 1-0-0, Colman 3b 3-1-0, Terrero 3b 1-0-0, Tannian lf 3-0-0, Mooradian rf 0-0-0, Clark 1b 3-1-2, Brodie cf 3-1-3, Campbell rf 3-1-1, Scannell lf 0-0-0, C. Starner c 3-1-2, Asselin p 3-0-2. Totals 28-7-12
Lynn Tech (7-2): 000 000 0 — 0
Whittier Tech (7-4, 6-2 CAC): 100 321 x — 7
RBI: W — DeRoche, Ryan, Brodie, Campbell 2, C. Starner
WP: Asselin; LP: Leon
