Lynn 15’s struggle early, soar late in win over Revere

PEABODY – For three innings on Thursday at Bezemes Field, Lynn manager Charlie Liberge was wondering when his all-star team was going to start playing to its capability. Then, in the top of the fourth, Lynn finally got the message.Lynn had rattled off 10 unanswered runs over the final four innings to turn a 4-1 deficit into an 11-4 win over Revere and earn a date with Saugus on Saturday (2) at Kennedy Field.”We tell them all the time that they have to come to the park ready to play,” Liberge said. “Because they motivate each other, and once they get going, they are very hard to beat.”By no means was this game a thing of beauty as the two teams combined for seven errors and 18 walks in the game. But Lynn was able to pound out 11 hits and rode the back of stellar relief pitching from Joe Kasper and Brian Wilkins down the stretch.”Kasper and Wilkins came in and did a really great job there,” Liberge said. “We knew at that point that we couldn’t give up another run.”Lynn got the scoring started in the top of the second when third baseman John Finnegan led off with a double to center. Wilkins followed with a single to right that brought around Finnegan for a 1-0 lead and eventually loaded the bases before Revere’s Nick Kelley got Zac Conti to fly to right to end the inning.Revere stormed right back in the bottom of the inning when Mike Ferrante and Vinny Lauria walked to lead off. After a strikeout, Steve Ciambelli reached on an infield single to load the bases and Kelley walked to force in a run.Justin Donati then lifted a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Lauria, to give Revere the lead.Liberge would be forced to go to the bullpen in the third as Matt Burnham singled with one out and Ferrante walked to knock Sean Buckland out of the game. Joe Lannon took over on the mound and watched as Burnham and Ferrante both scored on an errant throw on a steal attempt to make it 4-1.Lauria, Craig Scott and Kelley then walked, bringing Liberge out to the mound again to summon Kasper in from right field to try and put out the fire. And do that Kasper did by striking out Donati to end the inning.”We really had to go to Joe there because if they scored with the bases loaded the game could have been over,” Liberge said.Seemingly bolstered by Kasper’s strikeout, Lynn finally got its offense going in the fourth.Andrew White started the comeback with a leadoff double. He went to third when Liberge’s grounder to third was booted and came home on another throwing error on a Jonathan Capano grounder to third. Liberge also scored on the play to make it 4-3 Revere.After Conti lined out to right and Nick Day was intentionally walked, Kasper came through in the clutch by ripping a 2-run double to left-center to score two and give Lynn the lead for good at 5-4.Kasper worked a perfect fourth before Lynn tacked on two more runs on an RBI single from Wilfredo Felix and a wild pitch that scored White to up the gap to 7-4.Wilkins replaced Kasper on the mound in the fifth and immediately ran into big time trouble as Ferrante singled, Lauria reached on an error and Ciambelli walked to load the bases with one out. Kelley lined out to Finnegan at third for the second out and Donati grounded into a fielder’s choice to get Lynn out of the jam.Lynn then put the game out of reach, scoring twice in the sixth on two hits and three walks and two more times in the seventh on an error and an RBI single from Finnegan.