Baseball: LaChance sizzles in the cold against St. Mary’s

The mailman apparently isn’t the only one who delivers in bad weather.Fenwick pitcher Michael LaChance shrugged off the cold, the wind and generally deplorable baseball conditions to toss a gem in a 4-1 win over St. Mary’s Wednesday at Peabody.LaChance (4-0 on the season) allowed only two hits, struck out three and didn’t give up an earned run in a complete game win for the 6-3 Crusaders. The junior right now has three complete game wins and an earned run average under 1.00.”LaChance was the story,” Fenwick coach Russ Steeves said. “He really did a good job in this weather.”St. Mary’s took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when a run scored on an error, but Fenwick came back in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead for good. Brian Church drove in the tying run with a double to right field and then scored on an error. In the sixth inning, Church and Zach Brian reached on base hits with Church scoring on a Pat Barrett single and Brian on a Joe Bona sacrifice.”(LaChance) threw strikes and we had some opportunities that we missed,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. The Spartans are now 5-2, 2-3 in league play.Peabody 9, Revere 7At Revere, “crazy” would probably not be a strong enough word to describe the way the Tanners pulled out the win over the hosts.”No one was cold by the end of this game because we were sweating the way things happened,” joked Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt. “This game says a lot about the way this team can stick with things.”Peabody (5-2, 4-1 Northeastern Conference/North) surprisingly found itself trailing 7-5 entering the seventh inning. That’s when the fun began.Genaro Ciulla and Nate Hubisz opened the inning with singles before pinch hitter Bobby Losanno drew a walk to load the bases. That brought up Ryan McCarthy, who was part of a fifth inning that saw three Peabody pitchers combine to walk in four runs after leading 5-3. McCarthy got the Tanners out of jail when he blasted a grand slam to dead center.”It was like the wheels fell off the wagon in the fifth and then Ryan comes up big for us,” Bettencourt said. “Both he and Nate, both seniors, stepped up when we needed them.”Hubisz came on and picked up the save by working a perfect seventh inning.Peabody took a 1-0 lead in the second on a McCarthy RBI single and a 2-1 lead in the second on a Ryan Noftle hit. After Revere went ahead in the fourth, Joey Gruntkosky unleashed a 2-run homer to put Peabody back ahead in the fifth. Ciulla added an RBI single for a 5-3 lead.Marblehead 9, Swampscott 2At the Forest Avenue Fields in Swampscott, Matt Temme hurled a gem for the Magicians, striking out 11 and not allowing an earned run in the complete game effort.”Matty was very efficient,” Marblehead coach Jason Tarasuik said. “He really did a great job.”Marblehead exploded out to a 4-0 lead in the first and was never behind from there. Ryan Stanojev’s 3-for-4, four-RBI day led the way. He also scored three times and swiped a pair of bases.Jake Kulevich and Ben Koopman combined to go 6-for-10 on the day. Kulevich had a pair of doubles and Koopman drove home two runs. Hayes Richardson was 3-for-4 with two stolen bases and two runs scored.