Peabody walks off with win over English in dramatic battle

PEABODY – With the top spot in the Northeastern Conference’s North Division on the line Thursday at Bezemes Field, Peabody and Lynn English played like a championship was up for grabs.In a game full of twists and turns, the Tanners ran out to an 8-0 first-inning lead, then saw the Bulldogs fight off the canvas to tie the game with a 6-run sixth-inning barrage. It was Peabody that fired the final salvo, though, on Bobby Losanno’s walk-off double in the bottom of the seventh for a 10-9 win that gave the Tanners control of the NEC North race.Peabody (12-4, 11-3 NEC) now needs to win one of its final two league games – against Salem on Monday and Revere next Wednesday – to claim the conference title.”We knew coming in that we’d have to play our best game to beat that team,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “There isn’t a hole up and down English’s lineup?Thank God we were the home team because I wouldn’t have wanted them having their last at-bat.”English (13-5, 10-4 NEC) easily could have packed in the wagons after the first-inning shock delivered by the Tanners, but the Bulldogs managed to make a game out of it.”The thing that impressed me the most is that this team continued to fight,” English coach Joe Caponigro said. “They easily could have packed it in but credit to them, they kept battling. Baseball is a crazy game sometimes but I’m proud of these guys.”Peabody had things well in hand as the game entered the top of the sixth, sporting a 9-3 lead and having freshman Pat Ruotolo holding the Bulldogs in check.The inning started simply enough as Ruotolo got Dani Vincente to ground out to third. From there on, nothing was normal about this inning.Roberto Reyes walked and was lifted for pinch runner Randale Lara. Brian Maynard then worked every bit of drama out of his at-bat, fouling off pitch after pitch from Ruotolo, before ripping the 15th pitch of the at-bat over the centerfield fence to cut the lead to 9-5.”That was an amazing at-bat (Maynard) had,” Bettencourt said. “He fouled off a lot of good pitches and then to have the energy to come back and hit the ball where he did was amazing. But it didn’t surprise me because he is such a good player.”Ruotolo departed in favor of reliever Ryan McCarthy, who promptly issued walks to Brendan Carritte and Matt Burnham and hit Eric Bransfield to load the bases. Ben Bowden didn’t wait long to unload them as he blasted a grand slam over the scoreboard in right to get English all the way back.”Ben hit the ball hard every time he was up there and that grand slam was a shot,” Caponigro said.Bettencourt went to his bullpen again and called on Nick Allen to put out the fire and he delivered, getting the final two outs to end the inning.Peabody went quietly in the bottom of the sixth against English reliever Pat Cullen (5.1 IP, 2R, 1 ER, 2H) before Allen worked around a Roberto Reyes single in the seventh to set up a dramatic end.The Tanners caught a break when Vincente booted Genaro Ciulla’s (2-4, 3 RS) grounder to short and Ciulla wound up at second with some speedy baserunning. With everyone in the park expecting bunt, Losanno (3-3, 3 RBI) swung away and ripped a double to the fence in left to allow Peabody to exhale finally.”Funny thing was I was more nervous when we were up 8-0 then when the game started,” Bettencourt said. “That was because I knew it wasn’t enough against their lineup.”Peabody sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first against English starter Sam Hill, taking a 1-0 lead on a Losanno double. Ramses Vittini tripled home two more runs and Derrik Pereira made it 4-0 with an RBI single.Hill allowed a single to Pete Sucharewicz and walked Wes Sanders to load the bases for Jimmy Leavitt, who picked a fine time for his first career homer by drilling a grand slam for an 8-0 lead.English got a pair back in the third before the teams traded runs to set up the frantic ending.