Baseball: Lynnfield survives a wild one

Freshman left fielder Pete Franchi supplied the heroics for Lynnfield Tuesday, singling home two runs in the top of the seventh inning to lift the Pioneers to a 10-9 win over Manchester-Essex at Manchester.No lead was safe in this game. The Pioneers (4-7) put two on the board in the first inning on RBI singles by John Caruso and Dante Padovani, only to see Manchester-Essex come back with single runs in the first and second to tie things up.Caruso struck again in the fourth for Lynnfield with a two-run single and heading into the bottom of the fourth, Lynnfield led 7-3. The Hornets put up three runs in the fourth to close the gap to 7-6, but catcher Nick Roberts gave the Pioneers a little breathing room with an RBI double in the sixth that made it 8-6.The relief didn’t last long. In the bottom half of the inning Manchester-Essex scored three runs to take a 9-8 lead, setting the stage for Franchi’s late-inning heroics. Rick Beradino and Ty Surette reached on back-to-back pinch-hit singles and Chris Grassi singled to load the bases. Franchi (4-for-5, 2 RBI, 4 stolen bases) delivered the goods. He also helped stop the bleeding in the sixth with a nice catch in left field. Garrett McNeill went the distance in the win, allowing four earned runs.Mystic Valley 10, Tech 5At Malden, Mystic Valley did the little things right, getting a base hit with two outs and a man on second, moving players along when they needed to, and it made the difference.”They made the plays,” Tech coach Yuri Sanchez said.Mikey Lara was the bright spot for Tech with a solo home run in the fifth inning. Eric Guerrero started for the Tigers and took the loss. Lara came on in relief. Tech is 4-5 with North Shore coming to Fraser Field today.