Gloucester baseball outlasts English

LYNN – The Gloucester baseball team was an out away from getting a win over Lynn English on Saturday night at Fraser Field, but heavy rains forced the game to be called with two outs in the bottom of the fifth, necessitating the game to be replayed in full on Tuesday.Two days later, the two teams found themselves in an almost identical position as Gloucester led 10-6 with two outs in the bottom of the seventh.English catcher Roberto Reyes hit a 3-run homer to cut the lead to one and reliever Dylan Maki put the tying and winning runs on base, but in a game that had seen just about anything and everything happen, Maki finally gave the Fishermen the win when he struck out Brendan Carritte to preserve a 10-9 win.”Wow,” Gloucester coach Joe Orlando said. “We didn’t want to use Dylan and I never expected them to hit a 3-run homer. But I was forced to when they did, and he was great.”For the Bulldogs, who dropped a second straight game to fall to 11-3, it was a case of everything going wrong at the wrong times. After leading 5-0 through two innings, the Bulldogs committed four errors and watched Gloucester rattle off nine unanswered runs.”Gloucester is a good hitting team and they chipped away,” English coach Joe Caponigro said. “And we started to kick the ball around, which gave them some momentum.”From the way things started, it looked like it was going to be a long day for the Fishermen, as English loaded the bases in the first inning for centerfielder Brian Maynard, who found the gap in right to clear the sacks and make it 3-0. Maynard scored moments later on a wild pitch for a 4-0 lead.Bulldog starter Jonathan Surette then had to dance out of a huge jam as Gloucester loaded the bases with two outs, but he got Taylor Burbine on a 3-2 curveball to escape danger.English tacked on another run to make it 5-0 through two against Fishermen starter Brett Smith. But the Gloucester lefty settled down and proceeded to retire 12 of the next 13 batters he faced through the sixth inning.”We didn’t know what we were going to get from Brett,” Orlando said. “He hasn’t pitched in a while and I was hoping to get four innings from him.”Ryan Cusick manufactured a run in the third for Gloucester when he singled, stole second and third and scored on an error. The Fishermen then exploded in the fifth.A walk to Connor Ressel was followed by singles from Brett Cahill, Cusick and Trevor Curley that cut the lead to 5-3. Maki then found the gap in left for a triple that tied the game at 5-5.Gloucester went in front when Frank Taormina grounded out to third, scoring Maki for a 6-5 lead.The Fishermen added two more in the sixth on a 2-run single from Cahill and looked to have put the game away with two more runs in the seventh. But the Bulldogs didn’t quit and made it very interesting in the seventh.Pinch hitter Pat Cullen started the inning with a single up the middle. Gabe Smith followed with a walk but was retired on Esteban Paula’s fielder’s choice that scored Cullen. After Sam Hill struck out, Surette kept English alive with a single to right.Reyes dug in and ripped a fastball over the right-center fence to cut the lead to 10-9, bringing Maki in from short to try to close it for Smith. He promptly hit Brian Maynard and then got Dani Vincente swinging, but a dropped third strike allowed Vincente to reach.Maki finally put an end to affairs, after Carritte had milked every bit of drama by working the count full, by whiffing the English left fielder.