Gordon, Swampscott open with convincing win over Danvers

DANVERS – For the Swampscott baseball team, Wednesday’s season opener against Danvers went about as perfectly as coach T.J. Baril could have expected.Hunter Gordon pitched like, well, Hunter Gordon, striking out 10 and allowing only four hits. The Swampscott defense didn’t commit an error and the offense came up with six two-out runs in the first inning in cruising to a surprisingly easy 10-1 win over the Falcons.Click here for a photo gallery.”It’s the first game of the season but the luxury with Hunter is that he throws all year round,” Baril said. “And he can come out here, pitch seven innings and keep his pitch count down.”Gordon needed only 101 pitches to go the full seven innings as he retired the last nine men he faced in order.”We’re certainly glad not to have to see him after this year,” joked Danvers coach Roger Day. “But he’s been like that for four years now. He likes to play and has a good time out there.”The outcome was pretty much decided in the top of the first when the Big Blue erupted against Danvers starter Greg Ladd.After Ladd got Steve Moran and Frank Legere to start the inning, Gordon hit a slow roller to Josh Levesque at third. The ball was hit just slow enough on a still-soggy infield to allow Gordon to beat the throw.Shortstop Chris Cameron followed with a single to center and Shane Coffey walked to load the bases. John Pelletier then plunked a double down the left-field line, scoring Gordon and Cameron to make it 2-0, Swampscott, and send Coffey to third.Matt Barbuzzi walked to reload the bases and another free pass to Robert Faia scored Coffey for a 3-0 lead. Justin Fisher-Block followed by reaching on a catcher’s interference call that scored Pelletier before Barbuzzi and Faia came home when Moran’s slow roller to third was thrown away.Gordon ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the first as the Falcons put runners on first and second with one out. But the Boston College-bound senior got out of the jam when Levesque lined out sharply to right.Swampscott struck again in the second when Cameron singled and stole second with one out and scored on Coffey’s base hit for a 7-0 lead. Danvers got that run back in the bottom of the inning when Kyle Larson singled, stole second, and scored on a hit by No. 9 batter Mike Harris.That would be all Danvers got against Gordon, though, as he became downright stingy after that, surrendering a lone hit to Larson in the fourth.Larson and Levesque came out of the bullpen to keep the Falcons in range before Swampscott put the game away in the late moments. Swampscott scored once in the sixth on a Gordon hit that plated Legere and tacked on two more in the seventh on a Moran single and a Legere sacrifice fly.