SAUGUS — Perhaps Saugus coach Tom Gaeta was right. Perhaps it’s just better to forget Wednesday’s game with Danvers ever happened.
Gaeta certainly would. The Falcons unleashed a torrent of hits along with 11 fifth-inning runs en route to a 20-7 victory over the Sachems in a game that left neither coach very happy when it was over.
The rout exhausted pitching on both sides, and left the two coaches to agree to halt the game in the sixth inning even though the run differential was below the 15 minimum to invoke the mercy rule.
“We just agreed,” said Danvers’ Roger Day, “to stop it even if they didn’t score (in the bottom of the sixth), mainly to protect pitching.”
As it was, the game, which began at 10, was approaching 2 1/2 hours when it was stopped.
“These guys (Danvers) are tough enough to beat even when you’re playing well,” said Gaeta. “And we certainly didn’t play well (Wednesday).”
And that’s pretty much all he said.
“We’re just going to forget about this one,” he said.
Day was no less pleased. Danvers went out to a 5-1 lead after 3 1/2 innings, with lefty Ray Arocho seemingly cruising along. Arocho fanned the first five Saugus hitters and looked invincible out there, even though he’d been nicked for a run in the third.
But then Saugus came back with six in the bottom of the fourth and Arocho was out of there and Rafael Tylus was on the mound.
Pitcher Kory Dominick led off the inning with a single, and successive base hits by Mike Sweeney and Shane Ripley loaded the bases.
After John Prentice popped up, Dan Cacciola walked to force in a run that made it 5-2. Dante DelTorto was hit by a pitch and another run came across. Tom Trainor’s single made it 5-4, and a walk to Nick Enos brought home the tying run.
Dom DiPesa fanned for the second out, but Dominick got his second hit of the inning, knocking home two more runs and giving Saugus a 7-5 lead.
“We have to play much better than that,” said Day. “You’d think at 5-1, you pitch, you play defense, and you win the game.
“I’m not happy with the way we played in that inning,” Day said.
However, in this battle of big innings, it was the Falcons’ turn to explode. They had seven hits in the fifth inning as well as a walk and a hit batsman. Also, Saugus made four errors. In all, Danvers sent 15 batters to the plate and scored 11 times.
A.J. Couto hit a two-run double for the only multiple-RBI hit (he had three for the game). Dan Connors had two RBI for the game, as did Tylus and Arocho.
The onslaught left Danvers ahead, 16-7, when the inning was over, and the Falcons scored four more in the sixth.
Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].
