Correia impresses as Saugus National tops East Lynn Little League

SAUGUS – Saugus National righted the ship Tuesday with a 10-0 win over East Lynn in a five-inning District 16 Little League All-Star game at Grabowski Field.After suffering a lopsided opening-game loss to Lynn Shore last week, Saugus was all business and pitcher Christian Correia was the CEO. Correia struck out 11 and allowed only two hits in 4 1/3 innings.?He brought his game,” Saugus National coach Mark Bertrand said. “We couldn?t be prouder of what he did today. He had an excellent game.”After the 30-5 loss to Lynn Shore, Saugus needed to regroup.?We had two good days of practice,” Bertrand said. “They came in Monday and they were all business. Tuesday was a solid practice. They were loose and they were ready to go.”The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning. With one out, left fielder Dante McGrane singled. Centerfielder Evan Rago hit a blooper into shallow right field, setting the stage for Correia, who singled up the middle, driving in both McGrane and Rago for a 2-0 Saugus lead. Shortstop Skylar Smith singled to left field to drive in Correia and Saugus was up 3-0.Saugus took advantage of a couple of East Lynn errors to score the next two runs. Zach Kesbia came off the bench and grounded out to the pitcher, but the first baseman tried to get the runner going to third and the bad throw allowed Smith to score. The final run of the inning came in when the East Lynn catcher tried to get Zach Anderson, who had re-entered for Kesbia, stealing. The throw went into center field and Anderson motored around third and scored.?Zach Anderson was tremendous running the bases,” Bertrand said. “He scored twice for us. He?s a very heady baseball player and on the basepaths he?s very smart.”Saugus led 5-0 after three innings and made it 8-0 after four with Rago (2-for-2, 2 runs, 2 RBI) putting one over the centerfield fence for a two-run home run (McGrane had been hit by a pitch). Correia (2-for-3, 2 runs scored, 3 RBI) followed with a solo home run to right to give Saugus an 8-0 lead.Jack DiSimone came on in relief with one out in the fifth inning for Saugus. He struck out a batter, allowed a single and fanned the final batter to end the inning.Saugus? final two runs came in the bottom of the fifth with Sanderson singling and once again hustling home from second on a bad throw to second. Nick Aiken also reached on an error and scored for the 10-0 final. Saugus had some key contributions off the bench from Kesbia, Jacob Goodwin, Billy MacArthur and Michael Bertrand.The loss eliminates East Lynn, which dropped its opening game to Pine Hill, from the tournament. Saugus National will play Swampscott Saturday at 4 p.m. at a location to be determined.East Lynn manager Jeremy Polonia said his three and four batters, Miguel Raimos-Acosta, who was also the starting pitcher, and Jack Calnan, who finished up in relief, swung the bat well. Each one had a hit. Polonia was impressed with Saugus starting pitcher Correia.?That pitcher was unbelievable. He had great speed and a great curve. He knew how to work it in,” Polonia said.Raimos-Acosta started for East Lynn and took the loss. He went three innings.