Lynn Legion juniors crush Peabody

PEABODY – When your team’s offense has been struggling all summer long, batting around the order is a beautiful sight to behold for a coach.View Photo GalleryThe Lynn junior American Legion staff had the opportunity twice Monday as its squad managed the feat in final two innings while scoring 11 runs, en route to a 14-3 victory over host Peabody. “Our bats have been silent for a lot of this season, but something clicked in our guys minds today,” said Lynn coach Doug Mullins. “We were very aggressive all game long and it really paid off for us.”With the score tied at three entering the sixth, the Lynners sent 10 batters to the plate against three different Peabody pitchers. With one down, Mike Ausiello reached on an infield single to shortstop before Jack Leonard and Matt Cuhna drew back to back walks to load the bases.Back at the top of the order, the visitors got a game-breaking triple from Mike Gaeta that cleared the bases. Matt Costanza and Andre Gaudet drew free passes to re-load the bases for Chris Blake who delivered an RBI single. Lynn would strand the bases loaded but the damage was done.”Mike’s triple really set us off offensively,” said Mullins. “He’s our leadoff guy and he has a lot of speed and some pop and he was able to drive the ball and clear the bases and we kept it going from there.”The explosion continued in the following inning as Lynn went through their order once again, sending 12 hitters to the plate for a seven-run seventh that actually forced the games premature end as both teams coaches and the umpires agreed to call it.Leonard got things started with a one-out double to left-center before Cuhna lined out to shortstop. Gaeta singled and stole second before Costanza delivered an RBI base knock. Gaudet followed with an RBI double.After Blake was hit by a pitch, Brett Molea roped a triple to deep center, clearing the bases. Brendan O’Neil reached first on a misplay at shortstop that scored Molea before Leonard put an end to things with an RBI double to left-center.The Lynn bats were hot at the games start as well as they took an early 3-0 lead in the second inning. After Ausiello reached on an infield single, Leonard and Cuhna both delivered RBI doubles before Cuhna scored on an RBI single from Costanza.From their 7-8-9 spots in the order, Ausiello, Leonard and Cuhna combined to go 7-for-11, with seven runs and three RBI. “We’ve had some trouble hitting throughout the season so we’ve been mixing and matching,” said Mullins. “Those three have hit in the middle of the order a lot but we changed things up and they came through today.”The quick start went for naught however as Peabody scored solo runs in the second fourth and fifth off of Lynn’s Mike Troy with only the second being earned. Troy pitched brilliantly throwing six innings while allowing just four hits.”Mike was stellar throughout the entire game tonight and really kept them off guard. They didn’t seem to know what was coming next,” said Mullins. “We’ve played well in the field and got solid pitching all year, and now the bats are starting to come around which is great to see.”Now 9-9-1, Lynn plays again Tuesday evening against either Haverhill or Newburyport Red with a trip to the State Tournament at stake.