Lynn makes Gallant final

SALEM – After a rough first inning in Sunday’s Winners Bracket match up, Lynn’s offense came through in an eventual 10-5 victory over Amesbury at O’Grady Field. The win advances the Lynners to the championship game Tuesday.Amesbury got right to work in their first at bats off of starting pitcher Mike Leavitt. After issuing a walk and double to Shane O’Leary and John Gilbride respectively, Leavitt surrendered a three-run homer to Joe Ward that hit the scoreboard in left field.Lynn manager Jeff Earp then summoned David Barnard to the mound in an attempt to stop the early bleeding. Barnard allowed a single to Casey McClaren before he was caught stealing second by catcher Dan Lilja.Barnard followed by walking Derek Beaupre and allowing a single to Thomas Flanagan before escaping any more damage with a strikeout and a put out of his own.After a scoreless second, the Lynn bats woke up to score six runs off of O’Leary in a game-changing top of the third.Kevin Durant drew a walk to kick-start the rally before a bunt single by Lilja and an RBI single from Christian Burt. Barnard cut the lead to one with a base-knock between shortstop and third before O’Leary got AJ Luciano to strikeout.With one down, James Wilkins delivered an RBI single to left before Aiden Leydon played copycat to score Barnard and give Lynn the lead. Zach Elwell increased the lead to 6-3 with a line drive double down the right field line. “That was obviously the key inning for us and it was also the first time we have been trailing in a game all tournament long,” said Lynn coach Leon Elwell of the big third. “The kids never got down on themselves and we got some big hits with Zach’s double giving us a cushion.”Barnard would pitch up until the sixth inning, adopting a bend-but-don’t-break attitude. While managing to strike out the side twice (10 total), the righty also stranded nine runners total and at least one in each frame.”Dave was really the story of the game today for us,” said Elwell of Barnard’s outing. “He had both his fastball and curveball working and he did exactly what a reliever is supposed to do, give his team a chance to win.”In addition to the double-digit strikeouts, Barnard scattered six hits and four walks over his five innings work.Lynn tacked on another four runs in the game, starting with a three-run third. With the bases loaded, Burt drew an RBI free pass, scoring Spencer Divirgilio. After Gilbride relived O’Leary, Barnard scolded a two-run double down the left field line.An RBI double in the seventh closed out the Lynn scoring. Amesbury added solo runs in the sixth and seventh off of Lou Vidal.’We have been playing some great baseball and it has come with a lot of help,” said Lynn Earp of his teams success. “All of this is possible thanks to our sponsor Tom Dill over at the Lazy Dog. We really cannot thank him enough.”