Correale leads Peabody West past Newton Central

BEVERLY – He might be one of the smallest players on the Peabody West roster, but the heart of a competitor that beats inside Matt Correale was on full display for all to see Thursday night against Newton Central in the Massachusetts Little League State Finals at Harry Ball Field.Correale, nicknamed “the rat” by his teammates, had two hits, scored twice and threw out a pair of runners at second base from his centerfield spot. But his biggest contribution came on the mound.Thrown into the pressure cooker of facing a bases loaded situation with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Correale showed the heart of a champion by striking out Isaiah and Zeke Berg to preserve a 6-4 win and a date with Abington tonight (7) for a trip to the finals.”Rat came in there and did a great job,” Peabody West manager Dave Batchelor said. “He got the job done. Like I told the team, good teams win close games like this.”Leading 6-3 heading to the bottom of the sixth, Peabody looked like it was on its way to a comfortable win as Matt Hosman came on to relieve Austin Batchelor, who gave West five strong innings.Then the craziness began.Hosman would throw 17 pitches to the first four Newton batters. Problem was, only one of them was for a strike as he walked Fuller Winton, Elliot Sackman and Jason Beshansky to load the bases.He then uncorked a wild pitch on a 2-1 fastball to Ben Porter that saw Newton manager Dennis Levenfeld inexplicably send Winton from third, and he was easily tagged out on the flip from Traverse Briana to Hosman covering.One pitch later, Porter walked and Batchelor went to the mound and summoned Correale to try to lock down the win.Things started rocky for Correale as Jonny Levenfeld reached on an infield single that scored Sackman to cut the lead to 6-4 and put the tying runs in scoring position. That would be where they stayed, though.Correale blew a 2-2 fastball past Isaiah Berg for the second out and then got Zeke Berg swinging to allow the predominantly Peabody crowd to breathe a huge sigh of relief.”They made a big mistake there by sending that runner,” Batchelor said. “That was a break for us and it gave us an out that was huge.”The way things started, it was set up to be another easy night for the four-time Section Four champs as Peabody got off to a flying start against Levenfeld in the first.Hosman opened the game with a rocket that was snared by a diving Isaiah Berg at short. Batchelor and Briana followed with free passes before A.J. DeFillipo went down looking.Levenfeld then grazed the jersey of Mike Petrosino to load the bases. A wild pitch and an error resulted in Batchelor and Briana scoring to make it 2-0 after one.Then, Correale made the first of his two huge defensive plays when he threw out Zeke Berg trying to leg out a double to open the bottom of the second. An inning later, Peabody flashed the power that had led it to 62 runs in eight tournament games.Hosman led off the top of the third with a blast over the pavilion in right-center to make it 3-0. Three pitches later, Batchelor made it back-to-back homers with a drive into the right field screen for a 4-0 West lead.Peabody added a run in the fifth when Correale doubled, went to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on Petrosino’s infield single. “The Rat” then gunned down Theo Resnick at second on another single in the bottom of the inning to save a run and keep it 5-0.”When you get to this point, everybody is good,” Batchelor said. “And you need to make plays like we did.”In the fifth, Newton finally got to Batchelor and made it interesting. A walk and a double preceded an error that scored one run. Zeke Berg then made it a game when he singled two more home to make it 5-3 after five.Peabody added what turned out to be a huge insurance run in the sixth when Correale and Hosman singled. Batchelor walked to load the bases and Briana hit a sacrifice fly to left to make it 6-3.