Lynnfield slams its way past tenacious Nahant

SAUGUS – The 11-12-year-old Lynnfield District 16 baseball team hit three home runs, including two grand slams, in an 11-8 victory over Nahant on Thursday evening at Grabowski Field in Saugus. Despite the power surge, Nahant made the eventual victors sweat things out until the final out.Down one in the bottom of the fifth, Lynnfield’s Matt Relihan drew a walk to open the inning before a sacrifice bunt from Cooper Marengi advanced him to second. Joey Mack (2-4) reached on an infield single before Matt Mortellite (3-4) reached on an error at shortstop.Number three hitter Kyle Hawes took advantage of the situation, sending a full-count fastball deep and gone to dead centerfield. The grand slam, which was Lynnfield’s second of the contest, left the hosts with a three-run lead before Mortellite finished things on the mound.A bang-bang play at first made by the pitcher went in Lynnfield’s favor before Nahant’s Max Carbone singled to keep the idea of a rally possible. Mortellite induced Owen Nugent and Matt Fitzpatrick into a popout and groundout to second, respectively, to wrap things up.Nahant jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first on an RBI double from Carbone, who then scored shortly after on a baffled throw to second in hopes of throwing out Nugent, who had walked. Facing a deficit for the first time, Lynnfield coach Kevin Canty had to get his team refocused in the dugout.”I think the nerves got to them because we had jumped out to a big lead in our first game and they hadn’t been in a hole yet,” said Canty. “I think they realized they weren’t as good as they might have thought, and knew they needed to refocus and get the bats going.”Apparently the message was received as the hosts put up a seven-run inning in which they batted around. Trent Han and Tyler Murphy reached on singles to start the inning before a walk to Relihan loaded the bases. Marengi followed with the team’s first slam of the night.Lynnfield kept things going with a single from Mack, followed by a two-run shot from Mortellite. One more run came in on a sacrifice fly from Han, scoring Mike Stellato (2-4).”We got our subs into the game, and they came up huge,” said Canty of the big inning. “That inning showed we have a lot of depth on this team.”After the two-run first, Lynnfield starter Danny Jameson settled down on the mound, allowing just one run to score on an RBI single from Nugent in the third, until he departed in the fifth after hitting Joe Marini on the hand to open the frame.Nahant got to Mack, who entered in relief, for five runs to take the lead late in the game. Mack walked in the first run with the bases loaded before a two-run single from Connor Cociveo and RBI single from Mike Upton gave the visitors the lead. All this led to Lynnfield’s fateful fifth.”Nahant played a heck of a game against us tonight,” said Canty. “They scrapped and did everything they needed to do to try and get a win but we were able to pull it out in the end.”