Baseball: Fenwick’s late rally overtakes Peabody

The Bishop Fenwick baseball team found itself down 5-1 against Peabody going into the bottom of the sixth inning Friday, but the Crusaders responded with a six-run sixth inning to come from behind and defeat the Tanners 7-5 at Fenwick.”The Peabody starting pitcher did a great job for the first five innings,” said Fenwick coach Kevin Canty. “When we got a third chance to see him, we were able to make great adjustments and have some unbelievable success.”View Photo Gallery of KIPP vs. Salem Academy baseball gameFenwick (14-4) was able to load the bases up in the sixth inning. With one out, Fenwick’s Nick Bona hit a bases clearing double to cut the Peabody lead to just one (5-4). Gianni Esposito followed with a single, which moved Bona to third. Bona scored on a balk by the Peabody pitcher, which tied the game 5-5. Brian Burke executed what ended up being a game-winning suicide squeeze that scored Esposito. James Traversy added an insurance run with an RBI single of his own, and gave Fenwick a 7-5 lead. Burke came in for a relief appearance in the seventh inning, and had a 1-2-3 inning. John Olivera had a great day hitting leadoff for the Crusaders (2-3, 2 runs scored). For Peabody, Steve Leavitt had a good showing at the plate (2-3, RBI). Peabody is now 16-3.”It was a tough one tonight,” said Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt. “We will turn this into a positive, and my team will become better from it.”Salem Acad. 8, KIPP 5At Fraser Field, Salem rallied in the top of the sixth inning for the win. The loss drops KIPP to 2-5.Sophomore Alex Bernadin had 2 hits, 2 RBI, freshman Ben Noon had two hits and two RBI in his first-ever varsity game, and sophomore Nick Gross made some great defensive plays..KIPP’s next home baseball game is Tuesday (7) at Fraser.English 3, Gloucester 1At Gloucester, Bulldog senior pitcher Dana Stevens picked up his first win of the season (4 innings, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, 1 run, 2 walks). Ben Bowden came in for a relief assignment for English, and recorded a three inning save (5 strikeouts, 1 walk, 0 runs). Bowden got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard, when he hit a solo-home run to lead off the top of the third inning. The score was tied 1-1 through the first four innings of play. English put up two runs in the top of the fifth inning with RBI singles from Bowden and Jake Magher. Matt Merritt (3 hits) and Anthony Delacruz (2 hits) both had strong performances at the dish for the Bulldogs. English improved its record to 8-8.