Missed chances doom Lynnfield baseball against Amesbury

LYNNFIELD – Getting hits with runners in scoring position ? in the game of baseball, it seems like such a simple thing. But to Lynnfield, it has been the one thing that has plagued the team all season. And on Tuesday on home turf, it stung the Pioneers against Amesbury.Despite loading the bases three times, Lynnfield went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. The Indians, meanwhile, went 2-for-8 in the same scenario, but one of the hits was Steve Serwon’s 3-run homer that ultimately led the way to a 6-1 victory.”That’s been the story of our season,” Lynnfield coach John O’Brien said. “We can’t buy a hit when we need it. And the kids are also swinging at bad pitches, which doesn’t help.”Amesbury didn’t play like a team that came in sporting a 2-9 record as it hit the ball hard off Pioneers starter Mario Padovani for most of the game, while getting a stellar complete game from Dave Carrigan.”I feel good for these kids,” first-year Indians coach Gene Burnham said. “They’ve been working so hard and it’s nice to see them get something for it.”Amesbury threatened immediately against Padovani, loading the bases with two outs. But Sirwon then popped up to short.Lynnfield came right back in the bottom of the first when Dante Padovani singled and moved up on an errant pickoff throw. John Caruso reached on an error, moving Padovani to third.Amesbury brought the infield in and the move worked when Phil Perriello hit a chopper to Jared Flanagan at short, erasing Padovani at the plate and beginning the Pioneers’ frustrating day. Carrigan then struck out Vin DiCesare and got Brian Corcoran on a grounder to Flanagan to end the inning.The Indians grabbed the lead in the top of the second. Chris Cassidy singled to lead things off and immediately stole second. He moved up 90 feet on Nick Sheehan’s grounder to first and came home on Billy Medvitz’ sacrifice fly.Lynnfield (6-7) had a chance to get even when Kurt Thomas singled to begin the bottom of the second and moved all the way to third on Matt Connolly’s sacrifice bunt. But Mario Padovani and Nick Roberts followed with groundouts.”It’s not like we don’t have guys up who are supposed to come through for us,” O’Brien said.Amesbury extended its lead to 4-0 in the third thanks to one swing of Sirwon’s bat. One-out singles by Dave Smith and J.C. Collette preceded a Nick Slevoski strikeout. With two down, Mario Padovani made his only mistake of the game and Sirwon deposited it over the right-field fence for a 3-run homer.”Steve is our leading hitter and has been since day one. And it’s nice to see him come up big with that 3-run homer,” Burnham said.Lynnfield had another chance to cut into the Indians’ lead in the fourth. Corcoran was hit by a pitch. Kurt Thomas and Matt Connolly followed with singles that loaded the bases with no outs.Corrigan got Mario Padovani to hit into a fielder’s choice to second, which erased Corcoran at home. He struck out pinch-hitter Dan O’Donnell and Dante Padovani to end the inning.Amesbury put the game out of reach in the fifth. Slevoski doubled with one out and Serwon was intentionally walked before Cassidy bunted for a hit to load the bases. Sheehan hit a bouncer to second that deflected off Cassidy for the second out. Medvitz followed by hitting a sinking liner to left that was just out of the reach of Caruso, allowing two runs to score and make it 6-0.Perriello got Lynnfield on the board in the bottom of the fifth with a homer to left, but by then it was too little, too late for the Pioneers.”These kids have hung tough,” Burnham said in front of the Amesbury dugout. “Just look at them; they are so happy right now.”