SWAMPSCOTT — Yes, there are important games played in the first quarter of the season.
After a couple of rainouts, Saugus and Swampscott finally got the chance to play and turn their seasons around at Swampscott on Saturday.
An uninformed viewer never would have known that a pair of 1-4 teams were competing yesterday. Both teams played exemplary defense and got huge, complete-game efforts from their pitchers. Ultimately, Saugus won 3-0.
Al Wallach used an impressive arsenal of off-speed pitches to try to keep Saugus off balance. The junior ended up with six strikeouts and just one walk as he consistently stayed around the plate.
“Al threw unbelievably well,” said Big Blue head coach Jason Calichman. “He pounded the strike zone again and threw all three of his pitches – fastball, changeup and curveball – for strikes. He’s throwing like a No. 1 pitcher and he kept us in the game.”
Unfortunately, Wallach was damaged by two innings of persistent offense from the Sachems and, most importantly, the flame-throwing of opposing hurler Dom DiPesa.
The senior co-captain was, without a doubt, on top of his game. He yielded just two hits and struck out 12, allowing only three Swampscott runners into scoring position.
“I felt great, I don’t know what it was,” DiPesa said. “My fastball usually never works, but something was clicking and I stuck with it.”
“This was the hardest I’ve seen him throw in two years,” said Saugus head coach Tom Gaeta. “He set the batters up, he had control, and they go hand-in-hand.”
With DiPesa muting the Big Blue attack, Saugus jumped on its two opportunities to score.
In the fourth inning, DH Kory Dominick lashed a liner just over left fielder Kyle Waters’ head, then eluded second baseman Nunzio Morretti’s tag with a deft slide for a double. Moving to third on DiPesa’s base hit, Dominick lumbered home on Peter Pulicari’s full-count, two-out single.
The Sachems put the game away in the seventh with four straight singles, the biggest a two-run drive to right field by Nick Sweeney that plated Pulicari and pinch hitter Dan Cacciola.
“The more you see a pitcher, the chances of getting a hit increase,” said Gaeta. “We’ve got a veteran team that knows how to hit and they did it when they had to.”
“(DiPesa) was throwing well and got us to chase a few pitches,” Calichman said. “We just fell short with a few at-bats, but I was happy with how we were digging in the whole seven innings, all the way through the game. Our compete level was high and good things are going to happen for this team. We’re very capable of stringing wins together, and we’ll get back after it (today) against Marblehead.”
