Baseball: Tanners’ Ruotolo silences Panther bats

Peabody pitcher Patrick Ruotolo struck out 18 Panthers, as Peabody defeated Beverly 9-1 at Beverly Thursday night.Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt was very impressed by his young hurler.”Ruotolo was just magnificent today and was the story of the game. It was fun to coach and watch, and he is only a sophomore,” Bettencourt said.Ruotolo pitched a complete game, surrendered three hits, walked one, and gave up one run (0 earned). For the Tanner offense, Peabody scored three runs in both the sixth and seventh innings to help secure the game for Ruotolo. Bobby Losanno had a strong day at the plate (2-4, 2-run HR, 2 RBI, 2 runs scored). Ramses Vittini also helped out (2-3, 2 RBI). Peabody (10-5) qualified for the state tournament with the win.English 6, Salem 5At SSC, the Bulldogs received a dominant performance from sophomore pitcher Ben Bowden. Bowden pitched a complete game, surrendered six hits, gave up five runs (4 earned), and struck out 11. English coach Joe Caponigro was very happy with Bowden’s performance.”Bowden really was cruising until the last inning. He gave up a few hits, but it was good to see him finish the game off and win,” Caponigro said.Bowden did not give up a run until the last inning. The Bulldogs were up 4-0 after the third inning and Bowden did the rest. Leading the way for the English offense was: Edison Percel (2 hits, 2 runs scored), Alan Iraheta (2 hits, triple and single, 1 RBI) and Matt Merritt (triple, 1 RBI). English is now 6-9.Triton 9, Lynnfield 0At Lynnfield, the Pioneers (10-5) could only muster two hits, a double by Dylan Costa and a single by Bret Ponn.”We didn’t play well from start to finish,” Lynnfield coach John O’Brien said.Lynnfield is at Pentucket Saturday.