Swampscott Sox capture NSBL title

DANVERS – In an odd game that occasionally bordered on bizarre, Fred Cole was the calmest player on the field.Cole, of Lynn, scattered three earned runs on eight hits and struck out 10 to lead the Swampscott Sox to an 8-4 win over the Peabody Champions, Friday night at Twi-Field, in the seventh game of the North Shore Baseball League’s championship series.Swampscott won its ninth title since 1991 and broke a 3-year run by the Champions, who finished in first place in the regular season standings.”It wasn’t a good regular season for us,” Swampscott manager Joe Caponigro said. “We went 13-10-1 ? but we went to the state Stan Musial tournament and finished as a co-state champs, and that really gave us some momentum.”Of course, momentum is as only good as your starting pitcher, and Cole was ready as soon as he knew he’d get the ball for Game 7 after Peabody tied the series with a 3-2 win on Wednesday.”This was maybe the biggest game of my life,” said Cole, a lefty who graduated from Lynn English in 2006. “I just tried to make good pitches and throw strikes.”The turning point of the game was the bottom of the third inning. Peabody already had two runs in and the bases loaded with no outs when Cole struck out the next two hitters and then induced a groundout to end the inning with no further damage.”You really want to at least put the ball in play, but we couldn’t,” Peabody co-manager Michael Giardi said. “Give (Cole) a lot of credit though. He made some tough pitches. I (coached) him on an AAU team and he’s a good pitcher. You never want to lose to Swampscott, but if we had to, I’m glad Freddy Cole pitched a good game.”Swampscott scratched out a run without a hit in the top of the fourth, added two more with just one hit in the fifth and then broke the game open with five runs in the sixth, including a two-run single by Tony Nicosia and a two-run home run by Steve Carr. Peabody added two runs with no outs in the seventh, but Cole induced a double play and a pop out to end the game”You can never relax against these guys,” Caponigro said. “Even with a six-run lead in the seventh, I was still a little anxious.”Peabody broke on top with two runs in the third on three straight singles by Bob Dean, Keith Cooper and Kyle Multner, with Multner’s single bringing home Dean. Giardi was hit by a pitch and then Zach Keenan reached on an error that scored Cooper and loaded the bases. Cole got Derek Lyons and Brian Marshall swinging, and then retired Brian Marshall on a groundout to shortstop.”I usually don’t get a lot of strikeouts, but I tried to keep them off-balance with my changeup and it worked for me tonight,” said Cole.Swampscott had just one hit, a bunt single by Estaban Paula, through three innings, but Peabody starter Mike Moroney suddenly struggled with his control in the fourth and walked three batters around a strikeout. Chris Cole’s fielder’s choice plated Dave Lightbody with Swampscott’s first run.The Sox took the lead in a bizarre fifth inning. With one out and runners on first and third, Moroney failed to come to a complete stop before delivering a pitch to the plate and was called for a balk that scored Paula. An error and a walk loaded the bases for Ryan Healey, who after fouling off a half-dozen pitches ripped an offering from reliever Seith Bedard off the fence in right. Pinch-runner Doug Spofford scored easily, but Carr – who had to hold at second to see if the ball would be caught – was thrown out at the plate. Lightbody was right behind Carr and Giardi made another tag for the third out of the inning.”As competitive as we are, I have to give those guys credit because both of them could have laid me out,” said Giardi.Jonathan Santelises led off the sixth with an infield single and one out later Cole singled up the middle. After Paula walked to load the bases, Nicosia dumped a single to shallow right that made the score 5-2. Paula scored on a wild pitch, and then Carr hit a towering fly that cleared the fence in right field