Beverly’s timely hitting dooms Classical

BEVERLY – The third inning was the Waterloo of the Classical baseball team on Wednesday as Rams starter Ryan Powers watched Beverly spray the ball all over Cooney Park.The Panthers broke a scoreless tie with five runs in that third inning. That was more than enough for Matt Lanza, who shut down the Rams en route to a 7-1 win.”Matt was very efficient and pounded the strike zone,” Beverly coach Dave Wilbur said. “And we got some timely hits, too, which was a good combination.”Lanza scattered six hits, striking out nine and walking none to drop Classical to 1-2.”(Lanza) kept us off balance, and that one inning was tough,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski said.Lanza and Powers put zeroes on the scoreboard through the first two and a half innings before the Panthers exploded in the third.Frankie Messina singled and Steve Dubois walked to begin the inning. After Lanza struck out, Andy Brown laced a single to left that scored Messina for a 1-0 lead.Mark Theriault followed with a single. Catcher Joe Wioncek then laced a double to right, plating Dubois and Brown to make it 3-0. Two more runs would score on a Peter Kallas single and a sacrifice fly from Austin Butler.Classical got a run back in the top of the fourth as Wilson Mercado led off with a double and scored when Tyler Gauthier’s single to right was booted. The Panthers, though, responded with two runs of their own thanks to a Brown RBI single and an error on a Wioncek grounder to short.That would be all the offense Lanza needed as he shut down Classical the rest of the way, finishing his complete-game outing with a game-ending double play in the seventh.