Bowden twirls a gem as English baseball defeats Swampscott

With the English baseball team set to play four games over six days beginning on Sunday, it was imperative that starter Ben Bowden give his team some quality innings.Well, the freshman didn’t disappoint.Bowden threw 60 of his 92 pitches for strikes, holding Swampscott to four hits while striking out five as the Bulldogs got out of Dodge with a 3-1 win over the Big Blue.”We needed a strong pitching performance and we got it,” English coach Joe Caponigro said. “It was imperative for Ben to go deep in the game and he gave us a complete game. He just pounded the strike zone and pitched very well.”Across the way, the Big Blue’s tandem of Tommy Keenan and Robert Faia were able to match Bowden most of the night. The difference in the game came in the first inning when Keenan had control trouble and walked in a pair of runs as the duo combined to strike out 13 Bulldog batters.”Tommy pitched through jams nicely in the first three innings and then Robert came in and pitched exceptionally,” Swampscott coach T.J. Baril said. “We just couldn’t scratch across a couple of runs.”English (9-3, 7-2 Northeastern Conference North) provided Bowden all the offense he needed in the top of the first against Keenan. Gabe Smith led off the game with a base hit before the parade of walks began as the young Swampscott hurler fought to get his control on a cold night.Brian Maynard’s walk with the bases loaded pushed Smith across for a 1-0 lead. Eric Bransfield followed with a free pass of his own to bring in Dani Vincente, who had also walked, for a 2-0 lead.That would not be the last threat for English in the opening innings as it stranded nine runners over the first three frames and another two in the fourth.”We just weren’t putting the ball in play,” Caponigro said. “And that’s a credit to Keenan and Faia. They did a great job.”Swampscott (2-9) fought back in the bottom of the third as leadoff batter Alex Patkin ripped a solo homer to cut the lead to 2-1. There it stayed until the sixth when Vincente went yard against Faia, who struck out eight in four innings, to return the lead to a pair of runs.That was more than enough for Bowden to shut the door on the Big Blue down the stretch.”Swampscott has had a lot of close games and we knew it would be a dogfight,” Caponigro said. “We feel very fortunate to get a win.”Both teams return to action tonight. The Bulldogs will play host to Saugus at Fraser Field (7) while Swampscott hosts Lynn Classical at the Forest Avenue Fields (7).