Baseball: Three tied atop NEC North after upset-filled Monday

If the first half of the Northeastern Conference baseball season proved anything, it was that parity was going to reign in 2010. On Monday, that parity was on complete display.Both Beverly and Peabody, leaders atop the NEC North standings, were stunned by Gloucester and Danvers. Those losses opened the door for English to make it a 3-way tie for first at 8-2 in the league as the Bulldogs escaped Fraser Field with a 2-1 win over Saugus.English’s Gabe Smith threw 73 of 103 pitches for strikes, holding Saugus to seven hits while fanning nine. His performance followed Ben Bowden’s gem 24 hours earlier against Swampscott in a 3-1 win.”Gabe was solid. We couldn’t ask for more from him,” English (10-3) coach Joe Caponigro said. “We talked after the game about in back-to-back games that you could use four or five pitchers and we used only two.”Saugus scored an unearned run in the top of the first to take the lead. In the third, the Bulldogs’ Bowden and Junior Santos singled before Dani Vincente drove in the tying run. Two innings later, Vincente’s single scored Santos to give English the lead for good. The Bulldog shortstop finished 3-for-3 with two RBI.”He’s been our hottest guy lately,” Caponigro said.Classical 15, Swampscott 9At Swampscott, the Rams (4-7) won their third in a row as Kyle Devin and Tyler Gauthier each went 4-for-5 with a homer and three RBI. John Finnegan also had a homer as the Rams pounded out 18 hits.”It’s nice to see the hard work start to pay off,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski said. “We’re very happy.”Kyle Gauthier went the distance for Classical, allowing five earned runs in the win. Swampscott (2-10) got three hits and two RBI from Mike Walsh. Alex Patkin and Matt Barbuzzi each had two hits and two RBI in the loss.Danvers 4, Peabody 3At Bezemes Field in Peabody, the Falcons (8-4) turned to freshman Scott Hovey on the mound after Greg Ladd was unable to pitch due to injury. The first-time starter held Peabody to one run and three hits over 4 1/3 innings for his first varsity win.”This is a huge win for us,” Danvers coach Roger Day said. “We were going inning by inning with Scott and he didn’t get in any trouble.”Kyle Larson was 2-for-3 with two doubles and an RBI. Nick Gikas, Mike Harris and Greg Little also drove in runs as the Falcons took an early 4-0 lead.Andrew Bucci, Genaro Ciulla and Bobby Losanno each had two hits for the Tanners, who had the tying and winning runs on in the seventh with no outs but couldn’t score.”We were very complacent today, I don’t know how else to say it,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “But give Danvers a lot of credit. They won the game.”Gloucester 10, Beverly 0At Beverly, the Fishermen scored seven runs in the sixth to turn a 1-0 game into a comfortable win over the 9-3 Panthers. Lucas Ilges held Beverly to three hits while striking out eight for Gloucester. Caulin Rogers belted a grand slam in the sixth.Salem 1, Winthrop 0At Salem, the game was scoreless until the seventh when Juan Pena’s infield single scored Raphy Medrano with the winning run. Sean Linehan outdueled Winthrop’s Anthony Hatzisavas on the mound, striking out seven and walking one.Newburyport 17, Lynnfield 4At Newburyport, the Pioneers (5-7) left 12 men on and committed seven errors against the Clippers.