Baseball: Peabody closes late against Salem

The Peabody baseball team closed out the Northeastern Conference portion of its schedule in style on Thursday as Tommy Burns, Nick Allen and Pat Ruotolo combined to lead the Tanners to a 5-2 win at Bezemes Diamond over Salem.”We really have had a lot of kids step up for us this season,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said.The Tanners (15-5, 13-3 NEC North) were down 2-1 until Casey Grenier’s 2-run single with two outs in the fourth gave Peabody the lead for good. Two insurance runs would score on an error in the sixth before Ruotolo shut the door in the seventh.Beverly 6, Gloucester 4At Cooney Field in Beverly, the Panthers (13-6) trailed early before going up for good in the third inning. Chris Mitchell got his fourth complete-game win of the season while Joe Wioncek and Andy Brown had two hits each.St. John’s 5, Central Cath. 5 (9 innings)At Lawrence, the teams were deadlocked after nine but saw the game stopped because of a baccalaureate ceremony for the Raiders.Pat Connaughton had a two-run homer for the Prep, who also got RBIs from Sean Patrikas, Brandon Bingel and Anthony Capuano.