Peabody slams way past Plymouth, advances to Regionals

SAUGUS – For the entire course of the 2012 Eastern Massachusetts 15-year-old Babe Ruth State Tournament, the Peabody baseball team relied on an explosive offense and solid pitching to lead the way. Faced with a “win or go home” scenario on Saturday afternoon, both Peabody components once again played the deciding role in an 8-3 win over Plymouth.The tournament champions now go on to Quincy for the New England Regional Tournament, starting Friday, Aug. 3, when they play the Connecticut entry. Peabody finished off the state tournament with a perfect 5-0 record.Plymouth, also undefeated through its first four games, grabbed the first lead of the game in the second inning. Kenny Drew sent the first pitch he saw from his Peabody counterpart over the fence in right to lead off the inning.Not unfamiliar with coming from behind, the Peabody offense stayed focus and restored the order in the following inning. A single from Brian Nerich sandwiched in between walks to leadoff hitter John Oliveira and three-hitter David Hoar left the bases loaded for cleanup hitter Jack Leonard.Drew fell behind 3-0 in the count, prompting Leonard to take a pitch, which left the count at 3-1. Drew’s 3-1 fastball down the pipe ended up over the right field fence for a momentum-swinging grand slam.”When I went down 3-0, I was taking the whole way and then at 3-1 I knew he wasn’t going to try to burn one by me,” said Leonard of his game-changing at-bat. “I got a pitch I liked and put a good swing on it. I wasn’t sure where it went off the bat, but when I heard the crowd screaming, I knew it was out.”As it turns out, the four runs would be all Peabody needed as Raymond would allow just two more runs in the fourth. RBI singles from Cory Caraher and Andrew Whelan left Plymouth trailing by just one before Peabody put things under wraps in the fifth.Hoar led off with a single before eventually scoring on a throwing error by catcher Mitch Lundholm, who attempted to pick Hoar off third. Leonard would single and score on a sacrifice fly from John Barrett before Raymond came around on an RBI single from Tanner Moquin.Peabody picked up one more in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI double from Hoar, scoring Brian Nerich from first. The real fireworks of the inning came in the top half as Plymouth manager Tony Cappola was ejected following a heated exchange with the home plate umpire.A bang-bang play at first after a groundout to third from Shawn Reynolds went in the home team’s favor, prompting Cappola to question the first base umpire before returning to ask the home plate chief to reverse the call. When he was refused, Cappola reacted vehemently, leading to the ejection.Barrett came on to finish things for Raymond on the mound for Peabody, recording a clean 1-2-3 inning before his teammates mobbed him on the mound in celebration. Following the win, Peabody manager Steve Hoar, with both joy and fatigue etched in his face, gushed with pride as to how far his team had come.”They’ve fought back over and over again, and had to do it again today,” explained Hoar. He continued, “We sat the kids down a while back and told them they had a chance to make history and they’re on their way. They won the districts and now the state tournament ? these are the days they will talk about 20 years down the road.”