Purpura, Nazareth shut down Oak Park

Updated: June 24, 2011 11:42AM

Dominic Purpura made a significant improvement from the last time he appeared on the mound for Nazareth.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound left-handed senior pitched a one-hitter in Nazareth’s 11-0 six-inning victory at Oak Park-River Forest Thursday in summer league baseball play. Mike Brennan spoiled the no-hitter with one out in the sixth inning with an infield single.

Purpura struck out seven batters and walked four. That was half as many walks as he allowed during the entire spring season when he went 10-2 in 64 1/3 innings with a 2.07 ERA. He struck out a team-high 63 batters.

Purpura’s last appearance for Nazareth (34-7) in the spring was on the losing end of a 6-1 defeat to Waterloo in the Class 3A third-place game June 11 at Silver Cross Field in Joliet. He allowed eight hits and five runs in 3 2/3 innings in his 15th game of the season.

“I threw strikes [against OPRF] and let them put the ball in play,” Purpura said. “Obviously, I was hoping for strikeouts. I hit my spots well with my two-seam fastball.”

The Roadrunners (7-0), the defending summer state champions, scored eight times in the sixth inning against the Huskies (6-3) in what began as a duel between senior left-handers. Max Guzzetta allowed three runs in five innings pitched.

Guzzetta will be one of OPRF’s top workhorse hurlers this summer with top returning starter Zach Weigel expected to miss much of the summer due to travel team commitments.

Guzzetta will not play on a travel team this summer and has no other commitments to any other teams this summer. He made his third start of the summer on Thursday and has two relief appearances as well.

“I played more than I was expecting to in the spring,” Guzzetta said. “Definitely, it’s time to step up. I’m trying to work on getting my velocity up. I’m lifting more and I’d like to get more long toss in.”

The Huskies host St. Patrick at noon Friday and play at Fenwick at 2 p.m. Monday.

“I’ll do as much as I can for the team,” Guzzetta said. “I want to be better for next year.”

Purpura will leave Friday for a weekend trip to play in a travel tournament with the Schaumburg Seminoles at the University of Michigan. Before the high school season, he was ranked No. 90 among the state’s top prospects for the Class of 2012 by Prep Baseball Report. With solid high school and summer seasons, Purpura would like to move up those rankings and plans on attending a college recruiting showcase later this summer in California.

He plans on mixing in college visits with trips to tournaments over the weekends this summer.

“I’d like to strengthen my arm more,” Purpura said. “I am definitely planning to pitch [more] this summer league.”

Purpura is one of four returning pitchers that were among the top six leaders in innings pitched for the Roadrunners over the spring. One of those pitchers, sophomore Jake Bartels, hit an RBI double in the fifth inning that gave Nazareth a 3-0 lead against the Huskies.

Nazareth’s other top returning pitchers are left-handers Ed Gengo and Ryan Marske.

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