Gallant: Swampscott sweats; Marblehead cruises

SALEM – The defending Gallant Tournament champions got quite a scare in their opener on Friday at Forest River Park.Swampscott was pushed the entire way by an upstart Beverly team and needed a three-run outburst in the bottom of the sixth to finally give pitcher Dan Muller breathing room in a 5-1 win.”We got by this game without having to go deep into our bullpen,” Swampscott manager Lou Olivieri said. “That was huge. Danny was great and battled the whole way.”Swampscott’s opponent this evening (7) in a winner’s bracket semifinal will be surprising Marblehead, who stunned the host team with a 14 run barrage en route to a 14-0 win in five innings.The opener on Friday featured stellar pitching from Muller and Beverly’s Ricky Johnson, who held Swampscott in check for five plus innings.Owen Madigan-Fried broke the ice in the bottom of the second when he led off with a homer to left for a 1-0 lead. Beverly used a bit of two out lightning in the third to get even.Leadoff batter Lou Feingold got the rally started with a double.Second baseman D.J. Daigewicz then slapped a single back through the box to tie the game.Swampscott got the lead right back in the bottom of the third as Steve Hopkins led off with a single. He moved to third on a groundout and passed ball with two outs. Jack Morretti’s base hit delivered him for a 2-1 lead.Muller faced his toughest spot of the night in the fifth when Beverly had two on with one out but he settled down and retired Feingold and Daigewicz.That close call proved to be Beverly’s last stand.OLivieri cracked a one out homer in the bottom of the sixth to give Muller a bit of insurance. Morretti followed with a double and Madigan-Fried singled with two outs to keep the rally going.Third baseman A.J. Venuti then delivered a single that brought both runners home for a 5-1 lead. That was more than enough for Muller, who recorded his 10th and 11th strikeouts of the game en route to a perfect seventh.uGame two’s tone was set from the very first pitch when James McCarthy took Jeff Baez deep for a 1-0 Marblehead lead. Catcher Braden Haley would belt a 3-run dinger later in the inning to give his club a 4-0 lead.Salem promptly loaded the bases in the bottom of the first but Marblehead’s Liam Tubridy wiggled out of the jam by getting Colin Nye on a groundout to second.Marblehead effectively put the game out of reach an inning later when it sent 10 men to the bat in the second.McCarthy doubled home a pair for a 6-0 lead. Tubridy helped his own cause with an RBI single and Matt Koopman added the big hit as his 3-run homer upped the lead to 10-0.Haley struck again in the fifth as he drove home his fourth and fifth runs of the game on a single.A wild pitch and groundout capped the scoring for Marblehead.