Lynnfield, Peabody West win LL sectional games

LYNN – One team was playing for a spot in the finals, another was playing to stay alive in the Massachusetts Section Four Tournament at Reinfuss Field on Friday. And both did so in different ways.After waiting through a one-hour rain delay and some spectacular work by the Wyoma grounds crew to get the field playable, Lynnfield then had to go seven innings to dispatch District 13 champion Stoneham as Jake Rourke’s solo homer in the top of the seventh was the difference in a 5-4 win.In the nightcap, District 15 champion Peabody West got an outstanding effort from Matt Hosman on the mound, striking out 11 and allowing two hits to North Andover East, while his batterymate Traverse Briana hit a fourth inning grand slam that broke the game open en route to an 8-0 win and a date in Sunday’s (2) final.Lynnfield will play today (2) against North Andover for the other spot against Peabody West.Playing through constant showers it looked like Lynnfield was set to blow Stoneham out of the water from the get go.Jake Burt was hit by a pitch to lead off the game. Following a sacrifice by Brendan Sullivan and a walk to Rourke, Greg Baselesco ripped a double to left that scored Burt for a 1-0 lead. Pitcher Justin Foley followed with a single to left-center that scored Rourke and Baselesco for a 3-0 lead.Stoneham, though, fought right back as Jeff Fagan belted his second homer in as many games in the bottom of the first and Sean Moynahan drove in Connor Maloney to make it 3-2 an inning later.Neither team scored in the third before Stoneham pushed its nose in front in the fourth. Drew Johnson, Fagan and Moynahan all singled to open the inning. A fielders choice from Cameron Lanzilli erased Johnson before Fagan scored on Jonathan Sparco’s fielders choice to tie the game.Catcher Jake Jordan then sent a ball to the warning track in right, bringing Moynahan home from third to give Stoneham the lead. Foley got Mike Halpin to fly out to center for the final out.”They really are a scary team in those first six batters,” Lynnfield manager Kevin Canty said. “You really have to be careful.”Lynnfield fought back and tied the game in the fifth on a one out walk to Rourke and a two out single and outfield error on Foley’s lined shot to center. Lynnfield left two on in the sixth before Rourke led off the seventh with a lined shot homer to right.In the bottom of the inning, Burt walked the leadoff man but then struck out Jordan, David Agcaoli and Ken Graczek to end the game.UFor Peabody West, things weren’t quite as dramatic as they were in control most of the way against the District 14 champs. Hosman needed only 87 pitches to go the route, walking one and allowing only Max Burt and Marc Patnaude base hits.”Matty pitched a great game,” Peabody manager Dave Batchelor said. “He was throwing hard and throwing strikes and that was the key.”West gave Hosman all the run support he needed in the bottom of the first as a pair of North Andover errors opened the door to three runs. Hosman reached on an infield single and went to second when Briana reached on an error with one out.A.J. DiFillipo walked to load the bases before Hosman crossed on another error. Sean McGrath singled home Briana to make it 2-0 and Nick Bona’s fielders choice scored DiFillipo for a 3-0 lead.”That first inning kind of killed us,” North Andover East manager Bill Burt said. “If we don’t make those mistakes, we can kind of play our game.”Hosman would cruise through the middle innings, striking out seven of his 11 in that stretch. The only blemishes were Burt’s single in the third and Patnaude’s hit in the fourth.Problem was that Peabody couldn’t come up with a big hit that would break the game open. West left two on in the second after loading the bases and another man in the third.”When you’re playing teams as good as these, you need to get that big hit,” Batchelor said. “And we still need to work on that.”In the fourth, Peabody finally was able to deliver the knockout punch. No. 9 batter Matt C