Big Blue offense looks golden against Lowell Catholic

SWAMPSCOTT – It was Elvis Presley who popularized the term “Blue Suede Shoes.” On Thursday, the Swampscott High baseball team came up with another hit – “Big Blue Aluminum Bats.”Swampscott scored 11 runs in the first inning – 10 before Lowell Catholic made the first out – en route to a 23-1 Division 3 North preliminary-round win over the Crusaders at the Forest Avenue Fields.Left fielder Chris Cameron was “The King” for Swampscott in this one, going 4-for-5 with a single, a triple, a sac fly, and two home runs – one of them a sixth-inning grand slam. Cameron, the No. 2 man in the order, scored four runs and drove in nine.”Chris Cameron is a leader and a captain,” Big Blue coach T.J. Baril said. “He takes some good swings.”Leadoff batter Steve Moran also excelled, going 4-for-5 with a double, a sac fly, four runs scored, and three RBI.Meanwhile, Mike Gillis drew a somewhat surprising start on the mound, pitching the first three innings, allowing no runs on one hit and no walks, while fanning four – including the side in his final inning. This allows the team’s top pitcher, Hunter Gordon, to start when No. 16 Swampscott (11-9) faces its next test, top seed Whittier Tech. The Big Blue and Wildcats meet on Saturday in a 2 p.m. first-round matchup at Whittier.Baril, however, noted that Gillis has his own strengths as a pitcher, and that his team wasn’t treating No. 17 Lowell Catholic lightly.”He had three huge wins during the season,” Baril said. “We were certainly not looking past Lowell Catholic. They were undefeated in their league, and league champions.”Asked whether Gordon will start against Whittier, the coach replied, “We’re planning all hands on deck. Whittier is their league champion, a tough club, and the number-one seed. We’re happy to be playing for another day.”Swampscott virtually guaranteed it would do that once it put an 11-spot in the first inning. Moran singled to lead off, stole second, and scored on Cameron’s RBI triple. Gordon singled, scoring Cameron to make it 2-0, and then Lowell Catholic starter Nick Laiselle plunked two consecutive batters, Shane Coffey and John Pelletier, to load the bases.DH Matt Barbuzzi hit a two-run double, putting runners at second and third, and then Laiselle hit two more batters, Justin Massey and Gillis, with a run scoring on the second HBP. Freshman Frank Legere singled, driving in two more runs for a 7-0 lead, bringing up Moran for the second time of the inning.On a steal of second, Gillis scored when the throw to third misfired. Moran doubled, putting runners on second and third, and Cameron hit a two-run single for a 10-0 lead. Laiselle got two of the next three batters out, sandwiched between a walk to Coffey, but with runners on first and third and Barbuzzi at the plate, the DH drove in the final Big Blue run of the inning on an infield hit.”They are a much better team,” said Crusaders coach Tim Walsh, whose team finished 10-10. “They’re better in every aspect – speed, power, pitching. They hit well, they’re well-coached, they should do well. They should go far.”Cameron punctuated the day by driving in six of his team’s last seven runs, with a two-run homer in the fifth and a two-out grand slam in the sixth.