Peabody 15s hang on, advance to state final

SAUGUS – If you were in attendance for Thursday evening’s Eastern Massachusetts 15-year-old Babe Ruth State Tournament semifinal between Peabody and Braintree, odds are your heart is still racing.Ahead by six runs entering the final inning, Peabody nearly coughed up the lead before securing a 9-7 win at World Series Park.”I don’t know what to say, my heart is still going a mile a minute,” said Peabody manager Steve Hoar minutes after his squad secured a spot in the tournament’s championship game. “There’s no rhyme or reason to these games? they’re just never over.”A three-run Peabody sixth gave the home team the comfortable six-run lead, but credit Braintree for delaying the Peabody celebration. David Hoar had pitched a solid five innings before he was removed.Connor Columbus and Matt Gillis both reached after being plunked by reliever John Oliveira. Mike Raymond took over for Oliveira and proceeded to walk Thomas Victor to load the bases.After getting Anthony Venuti swinging for the first out, Raymond issued an RBI walk to J.P. Salisbury before surrendering a two-run double to John Crowley. Raymond fanned Will Ellis for the second out but Salisbury would eventually score on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to just two. Bill Keane would pop out to third with runners on the corners to end things.While Braintree couldn’t quite recover from a deficit, Peabody did manage to do so after falling behind early on. Hoar allowed two first-inning runs courtesy of a two-run double from Victor. The Braintree lead would go for naught, as Peabody quickly responded in its half of the frame.On the very first pitch from Scott Stracton to Oliveira, the Peabody table-setter lofted a ball to right that caught the wind tunnel and carried over the fence for a solo shot. With one down, Hoar (2-4, RBI) and Jack Leonard reached on a single and double, respectively. John Barrett (3-4, 3 RBI) followed with a two-run single to give Peabody its first lead.Braintree knotted things in the third as Victor knocked in his third run of the game with a one-out single, scoring Cal Berman. With a chance to grab the lead back in the fourth, an unfortunate Braintree mistake on the basepaths allowed Peabody to keep the advantage.With the bases loaded and Hoar working from a questionable stretch position, Stracton attempted to take home while Hoar was in mid-delivery. The chance ended up backfiring as Hoar’s pitch just happened to be an outside fastball that easily beat Stracton to home, where he was tagged out.”I actually thought (catcher) Brian Nerich sniffed out the play but he told me that he happened to see the runner coming and the pitch ended up in a good place where he could make a clean play,” said Hoar of the lucky break. “I had no idea that was coming and it ended up being huge.”Peabody added a run in the fourth on an RBI double from Oliveira, scoring Mike Shanahan, before picking up two more in the fifth. Raymond drove in Hoar with a sacrifice fly before an RBI single from pinch-hitter Dan Kohn scored Leonard.The three-run Peabody sixth again started with Oliveira, who led off with his fourth hit of the game (in four appearances), an infield single. Nerich reached on an error at second, which allowed Oliveira to scamper to third before Hoar plated him on a sacrifice fly.”Tonight really showed what kind of player Oliveira is,” said Hoar. “He can hit for power and he has speed. He is just a great athlete and was huge for us tonight.”Nerich would score shortly after on an RBI single from Barrett, while Leonard would come in as well on an RBI walk to Shanahan with the bases loaded.Peabody now awaits its next opponent, with Friday’s semifinal pitting Plymouth against Newton at World Series Park (5:30).