Wyoma, Peabody West go for it all tonight

LYNN – Someone will be heading to Tewksbury to represent District 16 in the Massachusetts Section Four Tournament next week. Which team that will be won’t be known until sometime later tonight.View Photo GalleryPeabody West made sure of that.The defending District 16 champs forced a winner-take-all game tonight at Pine Hill’s Spagnoli Field thanks to a brilliant pitching effort from Joe Gilmartin and an opportunistic offense that blanked Wyoma, 10-0, in five innings.The game was much closer than the score would indicate, though, as West blew the game open in the bottom of the fifth when it scored nine unearned runs on four hits and three errors.”We’ve won games by 10 runs and eight runs yet they feel like heart attack games,” Peabody West manager Ed Silva said. “Joe was just an animal out there.”On the other side of the diamond, it was a hard luck loss for Kyle Finnigan, who had allowed an unearned run on three hits before the wheels came off a little bit in the fifth for Wyoma.”Kyle really battled. He did a good job of keeping them off balance,” Wyoma manager Rick Anderson said. “That was just a tough inning (in the fifth). And Joe really pitched a good game for them. We couldn’t string any hits together.”Gilmartin set the tone for his outing early as he struck out a pair in the top of the first, part of 10 whiffs he’d record in the game while not allowing a walk.Finnigan was on the way to a quick first as well as he got the first two outs on four pitches before J.C. Espinal reached on an error to extend the inning. Angelo McCullough made Wyoma pay for the mistake as he doubled to right-center to bring Espinal home.Wyoma threatened to get back even right away as Brendan Lannon singled and too second on an error to start the top of the second. He moved to third on a passed ball with no outs. But that’s where he stayed as Gilmartin struck out the next three batters to end the inning.West would also have a chance in the second as they loaded the bases but couldn’t score thanks to Wyoma centerfielder Connor Donahue, who made three catches with his back to the fence on balls that likely would have been homers in any other park.”Joe (Baglieri) told me the fences are five or 10 feet longer here and those balls probably are homers anywhere else,” Silva said.It was still 1-0 in the top of the fourth when Wyoma got the tying and go ahead runs into scoring position with two outs but Gilmartin got pinch hitter Daniel Lauria to fly out to right to end the inning.Finnigan, meanwhile, had settled into a nice rhythm after his early struggles. He worked quiet third and fourth frames to keep it 1-0 heading to the fifth.That’s when things went a little haywire for Wyoma and Peabody took full advantage.John Mulready (2-3, 2 RS, 4 RBI) opened things with a single. He moved to second when Gilmartin’s grounder was misplayed, spelling the end of Finnigan’s outing on the mound.Lannon came on in relief and walked pinch hitter Dana Tennent to load the bases. McCullough then worked another walk to bring Mulready across for a 2-0 lead.Another run would score on an error at the plate trying to throw out Gilmartin on Jenarro Herbert’s grounder to short. Mike Sabella then broke the game open when he singled to right, scoring two more for a 5-0 lead.A walk to Joe Castrachini sanwiched a pair of outs before Mulready batted for the second time in the inning and launched a grand slam to right for a 9-0 lead. Gilmartin followed with a double and then scored the game-ending run on a throwing error at second.”I certainly wasn’t going to be comfortable with a 1-0 lead heading to the sixth and (Bobby) Alcock coming up first,” Silva said.Despite the loss, Anderson still thinks his team is in a good position entering tonight’s game.”Certainly, we have our work cut out going against John,” Anderson said. “But I hope that it’s the same for them with Bobby on the mound.”