Beverly puts St. Mary’s baseball team on hold

LYNN – One team is in the state tournament, while the other must wait until at least Monday.Beverly lefty Pat Wilson limited St. Mary’s to six hits and didn’t allow an earned run to lead the Panthers to a 5-2 non-conference win over the Spartans, Friday night, at foggy Fraser Field.The win clinched a state tournament berth for Beverly (10-5), while the Spartans (9-4; 6-3 CCL Large) must wait until at least Monday, when they travel to Cambridge to play Matignon.”Give Beverly a lot a credit. Coach (Dave) Wilbur does a great job,” St. Mary’s coach Derek Dana said. “But the kids kept fighting, and that’s what we want. We’re struggling a little bit right now, but if they keep battling, we’ll get there.”Trailing, 5-0, entering the bottom of the seventh, St. Mary’s had the potential tying run in the on-deck circle with the strength of its order looming, but Wilson worked out of the jam.”He (Wilson) was able to throw all three of his pitches for strikes, and when he’s able to do that, he’s very effective,” Wilbur said. “He pitched an outstanding ballgame against a very good team.”Making his first varsity start for St. Mary’s, sophomore righthander Cam O’Neill pitched five effective innings, allowing three runs on seven hits.”I’ll take that,” Dana said. “He threw strikes, he kept the ball down and he didn’t collapse when they had runners on base. We liked what we saw.”O’Neill’s only really rocky inning was the first, when Chris Mitchell singled with one out, advanced to third on a couple of wild pitches and scored on a sac fly by Joe Woncek. Later in the inning, Andy Brown, who had walked, scored on a single to left by Harry Brown.Beverly added a single run in the fourth on a single by Andy Brown, a fielder’s choice and a double by Cam Rogers. With the line drive tailing away from him, St. Mary’s centerfielder Nick Day nearly made a spectacular diving catch, but the ball broke off his glove.St. Mary’s best chance to score early in the game came in the third inning with runners on first and third with one out, but Wilson got a strikeout and a ground ball force out to end the threat.Beverly loaded the bases in the fourth and sixth innings, but the Spartans escaped both times with double plays. Third baseman Kurtis White started a home-to-first double play in the fourth, while second baseman Ryan Barrows snagged Mitchell’s hot line drive and stepped on the bag to end the sixth.The Panthers came up with two runs in the top of the seventh off reliever Matt Turmenne. The key hit was a single with the bases loaded by Alex Toomey over a drawn-in infield with one out.Zach Conti reached on an error to start the bottom of the seventh, and White’s double high into the thickening fog left put runners on second and third. Turmenne drove in Conti with a groundout, and White scored on a single to left by Zach Paone.