Big Blue move on with rain-shortened win

WINTHROP – It’s not often that a 6-14 team can be considered as a squad that could break up a bracket. The Swampscott baseball team, however, might just be ready to fit that mold.On Thursday at Veterans Field, the Big Blue faced NEC South rival Winthrop in a preliminary round game in the Division 3 North tournament and used timely hitting and solid pitching from Nick Meninno to grab a 5-0 rain-shortened win in five innings.The Big Blue will play at No. 2 Whittier today at 4 in Haverhill.”We put the ball in play, got solid pitching from Nick and were able to do a lot of good things,” Swampscott coach T.J. Baril said. “We’ve been playing much more consistent late in the season.”The Big Blue actually had a 6-0 lead in the top of the sixth when the umpires pulled the teams off the field at 5:30 because of lightning in the area of the ballpark. A little over a half-hour later, the heavy rains arrived and brought the game to an end, with the score reverting back to the last completed inning.”It was nice for us going in to have a little book on who we were playing,” Baril said. “We knew some tendencies and kind of knew what to expect. But Winthrop is a tough team and had won some tough games this season.”After going quietly in the top of the first, the Big Blue (7-14) faced a major-league jam in the bottom half. Nick McCarthy and Joe Boudrow sandwiched singles around a Tyler Pettee walk to load the bases with no outs.Meninno dug deep and got a fielder’s choice from Will Milano to erase McCarthy at home before getting the next two batters to pop and ground out to second to escape major trouble.”Nicky really dug in and showed some moxie there,” Baril said. “That was really big for us.”Neither team would score in the second before Swampscott broke the ice in a huge way in the third.Matt Videtta opened the inning with a base hit. Frank Legere followed with a walk before Alex Patkin’s bunt was thrown away, allowing both runners to cross for a 2-0 lead.Sean O’Brien grounded out before Matt Barbuzzi walked. A wild pitch from Rob Swanson moved both runners up and Justin Massey’s 2-out double scored Barbuzzi for a 4-0 lead.”We went along with the game plan in that inning,” Baril said. “Alex laid down a perfect bunt and then we got a big at-bat from Justin later on.”Meninno, meanwhile, was zipping right along by this point. He worked around a single and a walk in the third and an error in the fourth before Swampscott added a run in the fifth.Once again, it was the top of the order getting the job done for the Big Blue. Patkin led off with a walk and stole second. He went to third on O’Brien’s flyout to center and scored on Barbuzzi’s single to left.By this point, the storm clouds that had been looming all game finally began to make their presence known. With the bases loaded for the Big Blue in the sixth, the umpires finally had to call the players off the diamond for good.”We got good defense, solid pitching and our at-bats have been better lately. When you put those three things together, good things can happen,” Baril said.