LYNN – Baseball is a game that can be won in a boatload of ways. On Monday at Reinfuss Field, Saugus National showcased several of those ways in its District 16 tournament game against East Lynn.Click here for a photo gallery from the game.Using aggressive baserunning, a little bit of small ball and one big swing from Charlie Vozzella, the Nats picked up their second win of the tournament with a 6-4 win that earned them a date with Saugus American (TBA).”We’ve got a bunch of kids who are athletes,” Saugus National manager John Furey said. “And they know the importance of getting that next run.”East Lynn, which was opening its tournament after having a first-round bye, saw its chances thwarted by a pair of critical baserunning mistakes and Vozzella’s three-run homer that was part of a four-run third that gave the Nats the lead for good.”The baserunning just killed us,” East Lynn manager Alex Napoleon said. “It took us out of a couple of big innings.”The top three in the Nats’ lineup – Justin Winn, Vozzella and Dan Cacciola – gave East Lynn’s Brandon Kahari fits all game, going a combined 5-for-9, scoring four times and driving in five of the six Saugus runs.The only time the three didn’t reach base was in the first, when Kahari retired the side. Winn got the ball for the Nats and ran into a bit of trouble in the bottom of the first.He struck out Kyle O’Connor and got Anthony Delacruz when he tried to go to second on an errant throw from short. Ryan Boisselle was hit by a pitch. After Boisselle went to second on a passed ball and Kahari walked, Richard Newhall doubled to left-center to give East Lynn a 1-0 lead as Boisselle scored.Winn was able to escape further damage when he got Matt McManus to line back to the mound.Both pitchers breezed through the second before the Nats’ patience finally paid dividends in the third.Nolan Dube walked to lead off and was sacrificed to second by Joe O’Brien. After another walk to Jack Furey and a double steal, the Nats had two runners in scoring position.Winn followed with a grounder to short with Dube beating Delacruz’ throw home to tie the game at 1-1. Vozzella then delivered the game’s defining blow – a long three-run homer to right that gave the Nats a 4-1 lead.”Charlie had been hurt on a tag play earlier and we said, ‘Either you’re in or you’re out,'” Furey said. “So he said, ‘I’ll give it one more chance,’ and he did.”East Lynn didn’t stay down three for long. O’Connor tagged Winn’s first pitch of the bottom of the third deep over the right-center fence to make it 4-2.Two pitches later, Delacruz lined an opposite-field homer to almost the identical spot and suddenly East Lynn was down only one run. Winn struck out two of the next three and got Kahari to pop back to him on the mound to defuse the threat.”Justin didn’t pitch badly,” Furey said. “We had four kids who could have started this game and Justin hung in there and gave us a chance to win.”It stayed 4-3 into the fifth when the Nats tacked on some insurance runs.Winn opened the inning with a double and went to third via a throwing error on the play and scored when Vozzella singled to left. After stealing second and going to third on Cacciola’s infield single, Vozzella scored on Joe Bertrand’s fielder’s choice for a 6-3 lead.Those runs proved to be big as East Lynn threatened in the bottom of the sixth. A one-out homer by Newhall cut the lead to 6-4 before McManus was hit by Winn’s final pitch of the game.Dube was summoned from left to try to lock down the win. He got Scott Gover to ground into a fielder’s choice that erased pinch runner Matt Desilets before Gover was caught stealing second to end things.
