Peabody West heading back to Little League state final

BEVERLY – For the third time in four years, the Peabody West Little Leaguers find themselves a game away from going to the Eastern Regional in Bristol, CT next week.The four-time defending Section Four champs got an outstanding pitching performance from Matt Hosman, who struck out 10 and didn’t issue a walk over six innings, and took advantage of three Abington errors to score three unearned runs that were the difference in a 6-3 win at Harry Ball Field.The District 15 champs will now play Newton Central today (4) in the championship series. The if-necessary game would follow at 7.”We’re right in the place we want to be,” Peabody West manager Dave Batchelor said. “Matty threw well and hung in there when they made their comeback.”Both teams came in without a loss in district or sectional play and Abington proved to be a worthy foe for Peabody, hitting Hosman harder than any team has in the tournament. But the Peabody starter was able to take advantage of his team spotting him a 5-0 lead to get the win.”We’ve been playing pretty well for nine games,” Abington manager Mark Dwyer said. “And we threw the ball around a little (Saturday) and it cost us.”Hosman and Abington’s Jake Quinlan took turns putting zeroes on the board for the first two innings. In the third, though, Peabody forced Abington into a pair of costly mistakes.Hosman got the inning started when he reached on an infield single. After Austin Batchelor grounded out, Hosman headed for third when Traverse Briana reached on another infield single.Mike Petrosino followed with a grounder that went through the wickets of Mitchell Connors at third to score Hosman. Briana was then caught too far around the bag at second, but Brian Solomon’s throw in from left was well off the mark, allowing Briana to come in for a 2-0 lead and moving Petrosino to third.Nick Bona struck out and A.J. DiFillipo was hit by a pitch before Batchelor dug into his bag of tricks. With Matt Gonick up, DiFillipo purposely got caught in a rundown that was long enough to allow Petrosino to score on the back end for a 3-0 lead after three.”We were able to take advantage of those chances, and then stole that third run,” Batchelor said.Peabody upped the lead to 4-0 in the top of the fourth when pinch hitter Anthony Cravotta walked. Special runner J.J. Layton went to second on a grounder and third on a passed ball. Hosman then drilled a single to left to bring Layton home.Yet much like its opening game with Newton Central on Thursday, Peabody suddenly found itself in a game in the late innings.P.J. McDonald opened things with a single and pinch runner Sullivan went to second on a wild pitch with one out. Quinlan and James Landers then roped back-to-back singles to score Sullivan. Hosman, though, got the next two batters to end the threat.Briana got that run back in the top of the fifth when he bombed a homer over the left-field fence to make it 5-1 and seemingly restore order. But Abington wasn’t done yet as Jonathan Beniers singled and Bryan Dwyer pounded a 2-run homer over the right-center fence to cut the gap to 5-3.McDonald followed with a single before Gonick made what proved to be the biggest play of the night, throwing out McDonald at second on Jeremy Weston’s single to right.”Matty made a great play there,” Batchelor said. “And Austin stretched like a first baseman to get us the force.”West added a final insurance run in the sixth when Sean McGrath doubled and scored on two passed balls. Three Hosman outs later, Peabody had its spot in the state final.