English baseball rallies past Salem

LYNN – After four frustrating innings on Wednesday afternoon, the Lynn English baseball team?s offense woke up in a big way.Trailing by three in the fifth, the Bulldog bats exploded for nine runs on eight hits to chase Salem starter Devin Pinkham. The hosts tacked on two more in their final at-bats before closing out a much-needed 13-5 victory at Fraser Field.?That was our best offensive output of the season,” explained English coach Joe Caponigro. “The kids were chasing runs for the first four innings but they hung in there and were rewarded with that big fifth.”The barrage began with a first-pitch single from Kelvin Aracena before Andrew Napoleon drew a walk and leadoff man Kyle O?Connor singled to load the bases.Matt Desilets plated Aracena with a sacrifice fly to center before Lucas Harris reached on an infield single to shortstop, reloading the bases.The inning?s climax came on an ensuing bases-clearing double from Joshue Perez, whose rip to the left-center gap gave the Bulldogs a lead they wouldn?t relinquish. Perez would come in on Mike Ausiello?s duplicate act down the left-field line.Before the third out was recorded, the hosts received RBI singles from Dan Rustani, Napoleon and O?Connor.Aracena and Napoleon each scored twice in the inning.?It was very fortunate,” reflected Caponigro on the game-changing assault. “To that point, we had made some big mistakes that gave them a few runs. Thankfully, our offense got going. Joshue really stung what turned out to be the game-winning hit.”Perez recorded an RBI single in the fourth, scoring Harris, who had singled, stolen second and advanced to third when Austin Connolly?s throw from behind the plate ricocheted (rather harshly) off the head of Pinkham.The “big mistakes” referenced by Caponigro came in the form of three botched plays that cost Harris (the winning pitcher) two unearned runs in both the second and fifth frames.The first such play saw Connolly score from second after an erratic throw by Perez after Sammy Ramirez? ground ball to third.With two outs in the inning, Ausiello misplayed Tim Ryan?s ground ball to second before rushing his throw to first that got by Rustani, allowing Ramirez to score and Ryan to advance to second.An exchange of runs would take place in the Bulldogs second (Rustani sac fly) and Witches third (Ramirez RBI double) before Salem took advantage of another miscue.Josh McRae drew a free pass to begin the top of the fifth before Matt Marquez chopped a tailor-made double play ball to Aracena. The shortstop fielded the ball cleanly but an errant flip to Ausiello changed the inning?s complexion.Harris got Zach LeBlanc to pop to second before surrendering a two-run double to Chris Vandestadt that pushed the Witches? lead to its highest (and final) mark.?We need to get better defensively,” said Caponigro. “We need to be able to make the average high school plays and each of those errors were on average plays. If we can minimize those mistakes, I think we?ll be OK going forward.”The bottom of the sixth featured RBI knocks from Brett Molea (double) and Rustani (single), the former scoring Jeremy Polonia, who had drawn a two-out walk.