Peabody bests English in classic at Fraser

Spectacular defense, timely hitting, outstanding pitching. Friday’s game between Lynn English and Peabody at Fraser Field had all of that and more.It was a battle for one of the top spots in the Northeastern Conference’s North division and the two heavyweights milked every bit of drama out of a classic game. It was the Tanners who came away with a 5-4 win that wasn’t safe until Brad Piza caught Brian Maynard’s fly ball to right with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh.”This was like a state tournament game,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “We knew it was going to be a battle in a hostile environment because that’s a team that’s playing for a high seed and our kids came in and did a great job.”The two teams played pretty much dead even baseball for most of the game. It was the first inning that proved to be the difference as the Tanners got three runs off Mike Gonzales to take a lead they never relinquished.”Mikey did a great job of settling down after that first inning,” English coach Joe Caponigro said. “You just can’t spot a team like Peabody three runs in the first inning.”Piza led off the game with a double and headed to third on a wild pitch. Gonzales followed with walks to Marc Finocchio, Tommy Ciulla and Ryan English to force in a run.Groundouts from Pete Sucharewicz and Jared Shields brought two more runs in for a 3-0 Peabody (14-4, 12-2 NEC) lead.English (12-4, 10-4 NEC) charged back in the bottom of the first against Tanner starter Pat Dumas. After getting the first two batters, Dumas saw Jonathan Surette reach on a throwing error to extend the inning.Clean-up hitter Roberto Reyes made Peabody pay when he drilled Dumas’ first offering 420 feet over the left-center fence to cut the gap to 3-2.After the hitting show, the defense took over.Neither team scored in the second or third before Peabody threatened in the fourth. Brian LaTorella was at first with two outs when Andrew Bucci laced a single to right.Anthony Ortiz got to the ball quickly and threw a strike to Dani Vincente at third to get LaTorella and end the inning.”This was like a fistfight with both teams going back and forth,” Bettencourt said.The Bulldogs tied the game in the fourth when Reyes singled with one out and went to third on a throwing error. He scored on Richie Arias’ base hit.Peabody grabbed the lead back in the fifth when Piza tripled to left and scored on a Finocchio sacrifice fly. First baseman Eric Bransfield prevented even more damage when he made a diving catch on Shields’ looper behind first with two on and two out.Peabody’s glove work then saved a run in the bottom of the fifth. With Esteban Paula at second and two outs, Surette hit a grounder that was ticketed for a hit. But Finocchio dove to his right, snared it and threw a strike across the diamond to end the inning.”(Finocchio) made a great play there to save a run,” Caponigro said.The play proved to be huge as Peabody added an insurance run in the sixth on a Ramses Vittini single and a throwing error. The Bulldogs got that run back in the bottom of the inning via back-to-back doubles from Maynard and Arias.English then got the tying and winning runs to second and third in Paula and Ortiz. But after intentionally walking Reyes, Dumas got Maynard to end things.”This was an intense game with a lot of pressure and both teams were outstanding,” Bettencourt said.