Swampscott slugs way to Gallant title

SALEM – In the end, it proved to be a very anticlimactic finish to the 2010 Gallant Tournament.A day after Danvers dramatically forced a winner-take-all game with Swampscott at Forest River Park on Wednesday, the District 16 champs weren’t about to let a second chance slip away. Pounding out 15 hits and riding the pitching of the tournament’s outstanding pitcher in Adrian Espinal, Swampscott rolled to a 13-0, 5-inning win at O’Grady Field.”When we play two games in a row, we usually hit,” Swampscott manager Derek January said. “And we were able to hit with power (Wednesday).”In completing a summer that saw the bulk of the Gallant team claim the District title for the first time in a decade, Swampscott belted four homers on Wednesday, two of them coming from shortstop Jack Fitzpatrick, to win the Gallant title for the first time in 22 seasons.”You have to keep a team like that off balance and we weren’t able to (Wednesday),” Danvers manager Dave Gotts said.Swampscott served notice right away that it meant business on Wednesday as Ryan January hit a ground-rule double to begin the top of the first. January went to third on a Donnie Weisse groundout.Matt Hubauer reached on a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners for Chris Murphy, who singled to center to plate January for a 1-0 lead. After a flyout, Fitzpatrick walked to load the bases before Danvers starter Mike Cravatis struck out Espinal to end the inning.Swampscott would load the bases again in the second via two hits and two errors but only scored once as Cravatis again tap danced out of trouble.”Mike begged for the ball and against my better judgment I didn’t say no,” Gotts said. “He just didn’t have that good curveball like he usually does.”Fitzpatrick made it 3-0 in the third for Swampscott when he led off with a solo homer. Danvers had its biggest threat of the game in the bottom of the inning when Harrison Gorman and Cris Valles were in scoring position with one down.Espinal, though, bore down and got a pair of groundouts to end the inning.”Adrian pitched well for us all tournament,” January said. “We gave up only nine runs the whole tournament.”Ryan January knocked Cravatis out of the game when he led off the fourth with a solo homer. Leo Wile added a 2-run double and later scored on the back end of a double steal to give Swampscott a 7-0 lead.After Espinal stranded a runner at third for Danvers in the bottom of the fourth, Swampscott delivered the knockout blow in the fifth, exploding for six two-out runs.Matt Hubauer and Fitzpatrick provided all the damage with a pair of 3-run homers to make it 13-0. Fitzpatrick took over for Espinal and worked a quiet bottom of the fifth to put the game away.”This was a great summer for this team,” January said. “They’ve been playing together for three years now and they really have done a lot of great things as a team.”