East Lynn LL baseball wins in dramatic fashion

SAUGUS – In a perfect baseball world, the top couple of guys in the batting order would find a way to get on base and the cleanup hitter would bring them all home with one swing of the bat.Although things don’t go according to plan very often, they did in the third inning of Thursday’s District 16 Little League game between East Lynn and Nahant. After putting one run on the board, the Lynn team loaded the bases for No. 4 hitter Brandon Kahari and Kahari rose to the challenge with a grand slam over the left-centerfield fence at Saugus American’s Grabowski Field. The mighty blast put East Lynn up, 5-0, in a game it would eventually win, 5-3.East Lynn will play the winner of Wyoma-Lynnfield on Saturday. The loss eliminated Nahant from the tournament.The game didn’t start all that well for Kahari, who started on the mound. The 11-year-old struggled from the get-go, walking five batters over the first three innings, but Nahant couldn’t take advantage of the gifts that came its way. After walking the first two batters in the third inning, Kahari left with a sore arm and was replaced by Connor Galloway, who got the next three outs and in the process, kept Nahant off the board.”We left 12 on base,” Nahant coach Joe Marini said. “They left four.”East Lynn did all the damage in the bottom of the third inning. Galloway walked to start the inning and scored on a Ryan Boisell double to left field. The next batter popped out, but walks to No. 2 hitter Anthony Delacruz and No. 3 Matt McManus set the table for Kahari, who hit a shot over the left-centerfield fence to put East Lynn on top, 5-0.It looked like the grand slam had sealed the deal for East Lynn, but Nahant did not go quietly into the night. Corey Bleau, who had come on in relief of starter Albert Wallach just before the grand slam, hit a solo shot in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to 5-1.Nahant added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings and in the sixth, Ryan Desmarais put a scare in East Lynn with a shot to deep left with two on that was only foul by a few feet, but the game ended on a ground ball with the bases loaded”They (Nahant) were good. They kept fighting back,” East Lynn coach Alex Napolean said. “They made contact all day.”Napolean cited his defense as a big factor in the win, citing in particular great catches by Boisell at second and Matt DeSeleits in centerfield in the final inning.”I’m very proud of them,” Marini said about his team. “They came back. The last inning was interesting.”