Tyler Gauthier spins a gem as Classical baseball beats Peabody

LYNN ? A few more wins like this one, and the Lynn Classical baseball team will be using the “t” word – tournament – for real.In his first complete game since undergoing arm surgery, Tyler Gauthier allowed just three hits and one earned run as the Rams defeated Peabody, 3-2, Friday night, at Fraser Field.Classical (5-8) has won four of its last five and needs to go 5-2 the rest of the way to earn what seemed two weeks ago an unlikely spot in the post-season.”If we play the way we played tonight, we can absolutely make the tournament,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski.The Rams got all their offense in the first inning on a walk and three straight hits, including a single from Ellido Reyes that drove in two runs and another single from Kyle Devin that drove in the other.After that, Peabody pitcher Ryan McCarthy was nearly untouchable, allowing just two hits the rest of the way and setting down 12 in a row at one point.But the story of the game was Gauthier, whose fastball hit 86 mph and had to pitch around two errors that put runners in scoring position and a booming double by Peter Sucharewicz that made the score 3-2 in the fifth.”This one stings a bit,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “We had opportunities, but you have to give their pitcher credit. He bowed his neck and made great pitches when he needed to.”The Tanners (10-4) broke on top in the first inning when Andrew Bucci reached on a 2-base error, went to third on a sacrifice by Jim Leavitt and scored on a one-out single up the middle by Bob Losanno.The Rams roared right back with three in the bottom of the first. With one out, Kyle Gauthier drew a 4-pitch walk and went to third on a single by Eddie Terrero, with Terrero taking second on the throw to third.Peabody drew in its infield for Reyes, who hit a sharp grounder that broke off Bucci’s glove at shortstop and went into shallow left field to score both runners.”That was a tough break,” Bettencourt said. “That’s a play we usually make, but the turf is a little bit faster and we’re not used to it.”Reyes went to second when Peabody had trouble picking up the ball in left field, and Devin hit the first pitch he saw to center to drive in the third run of the inning.The Tanners squandered a leadoff single in the second from Ramses Vittini when they couldn’t execute a sacrifice bunt, and another attempt at small ball in the third backfired when they couldn’t get down a suicide squeeze.”I’ll take the hit for the squeeze,” Bettencourt said. “I was trying to make something happen; get their pitcher out of his rythem, and it didn’t work.”While McCarthy was mowing down Classical in the middle innings, Peabody drew closer when Derrik Pereira drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and scored when Sucharewicz’s double one-hopped the fence in center.In the sixth, Joe Gruntkowski reached on a 2-base error with one out, but Gauthier induced a flyout to end the inning and then retired the side in order in the seventh, though both Sucharewicz and Wes Sanders put up good fights before going down.”Tyler was just tremendous tonight,” Zukowski said. “He did a nice job of mixing in his off-speed stuff with his fastball. That’s a very good (Peabody) team over there and he battled all night long.”