Lynn Babe Ruth 15’s defeat Beverly-Salem

LYNN – The Lynn 15-year-old Babe Ruth team kept its hopes for a district title alive Tuesday with a resounding 13-1 win over Beverly-Salem in a game that lasted six innings.Both Lynn and Swampscott (winners over Danvers) are 3-0 in the tournament and will play each other Thursday (5:30).Also Tuesday, Saugus defeated Peabody, 13-11, to go up 2-1 in the tournament, which, this year, will be decided on total record after five games.Mark Melanson was the story on the mound for Lynn, going six innings, striking out six and giving up only three hits. In three games, Lynn’s pitchers have only surrendered one run.”He pitched a great game,” manager Ron Gaudet said, “and our team played the best defense I’ve seen it play in three years.”Lynn got out of the gate right away, scoring two runs in the first inning. Ryan Desmarais led off with a walk, and, after stealing both second and third, scored on Andre Gaudet’s base hit. Gaudet went to second on Brandon Devin’s walk and scored on a single to center by Joe Tardiff.Both Lynn and Beverly-Salem hurt themselves with bad baserunning. Lynn had a runner doubled off first for the second and third out of the third inning while Beverly-Salem loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the third, only to have one runner picked off third; and another one caught stealing.Lynn exploded for eight runs in the top of the fourth to take a 10-0 lead. Ron Gaudet used some small ball to get the Lynn offense going. Ryan Borders led off with a bunt single and, after two attempts at sacrificing him along, Matt Desilets poked a single to left, with Borders stopping at second. Kyle Morrill followed by putting down a beautiful bunt in no man’s land between the mound and third, and beat it out to load the bases.One out later, Desmarais doubled to score two runs and make it 4-0. Morrill came home on a balk and Desmarais came home moments later on a wild pitch. And when Dan Hennessey, who had been hit by a pitch, scored on Gaudet’s sacrifice fly, it was 7-0.But Lynn wasn’t finished. Devin reached on an error, Tardiff singled to center, and Borders blasted one over the centerfielder’s head. The ball rolled all the way to the fence, and Borders touched them all to knock in three more runs and make it 10-0.Beverly-Salem scored a run in the bottom of the fourth, but Lynn put the game away in the top of the sixth on base hits by Marquis O’Neal, Desilets and Melanson.Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].