Falcons fly high at Fraser over English

LYNN – Ask Danvers coach Roger Day how his team has won 10 games following Thursday’s 10-2 win over Lynn English at Fraser Field, and you get the almost-cursory look of amazement.”I’m very surprised that we have the amount of wins we do,” Day said after his team clinched a state tournament berth. “Every game has been a battle for us.”On Thursday, Danvers (10-2) jumped on the Bulldogs quickly and never looked back thanks to Jeff Eldridge’s complete-game six-hitter that featured seven strikeouts.For the second straight game, English (7-5) had no answer for a powerful offense. But unlike the Bulldogs’ loss to Gloucester on Wednesday, it was the Falcons offense that did in English, and not a shaky defense.Roberto Reyes started and struggled mightily in finding the strike zone, walking five in three-plus innings of work. And many of those walks helped the Falcons grab a 4-1 lead through two innings.”Roberto had problems with his control, and walks will kill you,” English coach Joe Caponigro said. “And a lot of those runners scored.”Danvers took a 1-0 lead in the first when Jake Korthas and Bobby Dean drew walks. Tom Marini sacrificed them to second and third before Korthas scored on an Eldridge fielder’s choice.Walks again hurt the Bulldogs in the second as John Gikas led off with a free pass and moved to second on a stolen base and a passed ball. Kyle Larson followed with a walk before Troy Thibodeau tripled, scoring Gikas and Larson to make it 3-0.Dean followed with a laser shot down the third-base line, plating Thibodeau to make it 4-0.”Our offense is starting to come around,” Day said. “We needed to pick it up, and we did.”English got a run back in the bottom of the second when Jonathan Santalises reached on an infield single. Following an errant pickoff throw, he scored on Anthony Ortiz’ two-out single that made it 4-1.Danvers, however, put the game on ice in the fourth.Korthas reached on an error before Dean belted an inside-the-park home run to straightaway center, giving Danvers a 6-1 bulge. Marini walked and Eldridge singled before Matt Pasquariello ended Reyes’ start with a base hit that plated both runners to make it 8-1.Sam Hill took over and was able to pitch the Bulldogs out of further damage. Danvers would add two runs in the sixth on two walks, two hit batsmen and an RBI single from Dean.English closed the scoring in the sixth on Justin Ford’s fielder’s choice that plated Reyes.”I like the way the kids battled and kept their heads up. That’s good to see,” Caponigro said.