English baseball team walks past Peabody

LYNN – Walks are the bane of any pitcher and manager’s existence in baseball and on Friday at Fraser Field, that old axiom proved to be true for the Peabody baseball team.Pat Ruotolo and Ryan McCarthy combined to put the shackles on an explosive Lynn English lineup, holding the Bulldogs to just two hits. English, however, showed great discipline at the plate to force the Tanner hurlers into eight walks and took advantage of a crucial error in the fifth to grab a 3-1 win.”We’re not tearing the cover off the ball by any means, but we’re winning the close games,” English coach Joe Caponigro said.One of the main reasons for the Bulldogs getting around their lack of hitting was the outstanding pitching of freshman Ben Bowden, who threw 70 strikes out of his 103 pitches to hold Peabody to four hits in the game while striking out seven.”Give (Bowden) credit,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “To come out and throw a complete game against our lineup is a big deal.”It was freshman vs. freshman on the mound as Peabody gave the ball to Pat Ruotolo and he was brilliant in the early going, keeping English hitless through the first three innings despite issuing a pair of walks to Dani Vincente and Roberto Reyes in the first.Peabody threatened in the fourth when Ramses Vittini reached on a leadoff error. Bowden then picked him off first to tap dance his way out of the jam.”That was a big play,” Bettencourt said. “We had something going there and Ramses gets picked off.”English’s plate discipline would be critical again in the bottom of the fourth as Vincente drew a leadoff walk and went all the way to third on a passed ball with Reyes up. Ruotolo then walked Reyes before striking out Brian Maynard.Eric Bransfield then drew another walk to load the bases. Brendan Carritte followed by drawing the fourth free pass of the inning to score Vincente for a 1-0 lead.”We did a great job of being patient at the plate and making Ruotolo throw pitches,” Caponigro said.English would add to its lead in the fifth against reliever Ryan McCarthy. Junior Santos walked and moved to second on a balk. After Vincente reached on an error, Reyes got English’s first hit of the game, a single that scored Santos for a 2-0 lead.Maynard then doubled to score Vincente for a 3-0 margin. Those runs would be critical as Peabody got a run back in the sixth and then put the tying runs in scoring position in the seventh but Maynard flagged down Jimmy Leavitt’s shot to center to end the game.”Ben was the story,” Caponigro said. “He was tremendous in hitting his spots with his fastball.”