Vittini’s six RBI lead Peabody to win over Classical

LYNN – With a chance to assume control of its destiny in the NEC North on Thursday, the Peabody baseball team came to Fraser Field knowing it would be facing a motivated Classical team that was nearly no-hit by the Tanners 24 hours earlier.The Rams certainly came out flying, taking a 4-1 first inning lead, but the Tanners stayed the course and, led by senior Ramses Vittini’s seventh inning grand slam and six RBIs, Peabody prevailed 9-4 to take a firm foothold in the NEC North.Click here for a photo gallery.”We knew coming in that Classical was going to be fired up,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “And they came out swinging the bats. But we stayed with it, chipped away and Ramses gave us a big lift (Thursday).”Peabody (9-5, 8-3 NEC North) now has a two-game lead over the Rams and a date with Beverly on Monday that could result in a sweep of the Panthers and all but lock up another league title for the Tanners.”We knew as coaches after last night that this would be a different game,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski said. “And right off the bat, we did what we wanted to do. But then they started chipping away and we started pressing too much.”The Tanners scored a two-out run in the top of the first against Classical’s (7-7, 6-5) Kyle Gauthier via a Bobby Losanno single and a Vittini double. The Rams would return the favor against Nick Allen in the bottom of the first.Gauthier and Wilfredo Feliz singled before fielder’s choices from Kyle Devin and Greg Rybak erased both runners. John Finnigan tied the game with a base hit to left before Angel Tavares’ infield single plated Rybak for a 2-1 lead.Ryan Hayward then singled to left-center, plating Finnigan and Tavares for a 4-1 lead against one of the Tanners’ aces, Allen.”I didn’t send anyone down to warm up because I knew with Nick’s experience that he would settle down,” Bettencourt said.And Allen did just that, allowing only two hits over the final six Classical at-bats, allowing Peabody to steadily eat away at the deficit.The Tanners scored a run in the third and got a two-out Matt McIsaac single in the fourth to make it 4-3.A Genaro Ciulla double to lead off the fifth was followed by a Wes Sanders bunt single. Losanno’s sacrifice fly tied the game before Vittini singled to give Peabody a 5-4 lead.”We gave them some extra outs and those are a killer against Peabody,” Zukowski said. “You can’t do that against them because they will capitalize every time.”Peabody would add the coup de grace in the seventh as pinch hitter Aaron Comak walked and Ciulla singled to knock Gauthier out of the game. Jorge Perez came on and walked Sanders to load the bases for Vittini, who tattooed a fastball for a line-shot grand slam to left for the game’s final four runs.”We got a lot of big two-out hits to chip away and not come away empty in the innings we had chances,” Bettencourt said. “Classical is a very good team and we knew these two games weren’t going to be easy.”