Beverly long ball sinks Swampscott

BEVERLY – The Beverly baseball team certainly made the most of its hits on Friday at Cooney Park against Swampscott.The Panthers, a day after pounding out 26 runs against Salem, were held to just four hits by the Swampscott tandem of Tommy Keenan and Robert Faia. Problem was that three of those hits were home runs, including catcher Joe Wioncek’s 3-run blast in the fifth inning that broke a 3-3 tie and led to an eventual 7-3 win for the Panthers.”Their pitchers kept us off balance pretty well,” Beverly coach Dave Wilbur said. “But we got some big hits and I like how we were able to battle.”Swampscott proved to be its own worst enemy on Friday as the Big Blue committed five errors and failed to convert on a bases-loaded situation with no outs in the third inning that turned the game’s momentum completely around.”In the two big innings they had, we basically gave them five runs and you can’t do that against a team like that,” Swampscott coach T.J. Baril said. “The bases loaded situation was big too. I ran us out of that inning and I take responsibility for that.”The way things started it looked like Swampscott might be on the way to pulling the upset as it broke the ice against Panther hurler Kyle Johnson in the second via a little small ball.Justin Massey walked and went to third with one out when Matt Barbuzzi reached on an error. Beverly had a chance to diffuse the threat when Nick Meninno failed on a suicide squeeze attempt, but Massey was able to get back to third safely.Meninno delivered two pitches later, blooping a single on the edge of the outfield grass for a 1-0 lead. An errant throw on a stolen base attempt scored Barbuzzi for a 2-0 lead and Frank Legere’s two out single made it a 3-0 game.Beverly got one back in the bottom of the second on one of the weirdest plays you’d ever see. Ethan Trowt hit a high fly ball to right field which saw Sean O’Brien go out from first and Casey Collins charge in from right looking for the ball. But both lost the the ball in the sun and it dropped near the warning track in right for an inside the park homer.Swampscott would load the bases in the next inning but saw O’Brien picked off of third trying to steal a run. Johnson then struck out Massey and got Barbuzzi on a grounder to end the inning.Three errors in the bottom of the inning by the Big Blue resulted in a pair of unearned runs that tied the game at 3-3. There it stayed until the fifth, when the Panthers struck again.Andy Brown led off with a walk and then Chris Mitchell reached when his bunt attempt was muffed at third. Wioncek then unloaded, driving a blast well over the right field fence to suddenly give Beverly a 6-3 lead.Beverly would add a final run in the sixth off Faia as No. 8 batter Felix Zamot drove a blast to dead center for a 7-3 lead.Swampscott would make it interesting in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs and driving Johnson from the game. Reliever Pat Wilson came in and got Collins to ground back to the mound for the final out.