Peabody West christens District 16 by winning title

LYNN – It seemed only right that the District 16 championship game came down to a mano-a-mano battle between Wyoma’s Kyle Autillio and Peabody West’s Nick Palma.Click here for a photo gallery of Friday night’s gameIn one of the most heart-pounding District finals in recent memory, Palma hooked an 0-2 pitch just inside the right field foul pole for a 2-run walk-off homer that gave West a 3-1 win at Volunteer Field; the District 16 title in their first try and an amazing sixth consecutive District title overall.”We had one kid that was able to hit the ball and that’s what it came down to,” Peabody West manager Frank Benea said. “Autillio was a hell of a pitcher. He’s the type of pitcher you can ride to Williamsport. It was a great and exciting game.”Autillio was simply brilliant in a game that he probably deserved a much better fate in. Not in Peabody West’s six year run as one of the kingpins of Massachusetts Little League has a pitcher handled them like Autillio did on Friday.The southpaw threw 65 of his 80 pitches for strikes en route to 13 punchouts with out surrendering a walk. In fact, the only two balls Peabody got out of the infield proved to be Palma’s two home runs.”Kyle was fantastic,” Wyoma manager Steve Moccia said. “We went down with a fight and that’s all I could have asked.”West’s Connor Corrigan was just as efficient in his time on the mound as he threw 57 of his 80 pitches for strikes through five-plus innings before Autillio touched him up for a game-tying homer to lead off the sixth.Corrigan needed 43 pitches to get through the first two innings but he stranded a pair of Wyoma runners on base each time. Autillio was even more efficient as he struck out eight of the first nine Peabody hitters he saw.Palma would break the scoreless tie in the fourth as he hit a fly to center that kept drifting towards the fence. Centerfielder Travis Ryan nearly came up with a spectacular catch but the ball bounced off his glove, hit the top of the fence and trickled over for a 1-0 West lead.”You need to get a break sometimes in a run like this,” West coach Ed Aiello said. “I didn’t think that ball had enough to get out from where I was standing.”Wyoma had a chance to tie things in the fifth when Ricky Germano led off with a single. But Corrigan struck out the next two and got Brendan Powicki on a fielders choice to end the inning.It stayed 1-0 until Autillio belted a 2-1 pitch over the right-center fence to tie the game in the sixth and knock Corrigan from the game.Reliever Jake Doherty then saw Herbie Newton reach on an error but was able to strike out Brendan Morris with the go-ahead run at third to end the inning.No. 9 batter Matt D’Amato gave Peabody life when he punched an infield single to begin the bottom of the sixth. Palma then stepped up and sent everyone home with one swing of the bat.”Autillio is such a great player,” Benea said. “It was seemingly right that it came down to those two. And for it to come in a lefty against lefty matchup is something you don’t expect.”