Peabody West wins in dramatic fashion

After having fought back to take a 4-2 lead in the top of the sixth inning, it looked like Peabody West was on its way to clearing a major hurdle in its opening game of the Section Four Tournament at Poulin Field.Then District 15 champion Hamilton-Wenham stunned everyone with a five-run top of the sixth to take a 7-4 lead. But showing the character that had earned them a state title as 10-year-olds and a spot in the finals last year as 11?s, the Peabody players fought back to force extra innings on John Mulready?s three-run jack with one out in the bottom of the sixth, and then stunningly took an 8-7 victory in extra innings when Joe Castrachini belted a walk-off homer in the bottom of the seventh.?It was great to see the kids battle back,” Peabody West manager Ed Silva said. “Hamilton-Wenham is very good.”The win was huge in many ways, but most importantly it puts Peabody in position to hold the inside track towards a spot in Sunday?s championship game if it can beat Wilmington tonight in the second game of round robin play.?I was thrilled to see us come back. It would have been easy to get down, especially in this environment,” Silva said.It looked like West was on its way to victory when Angelo McCullough, who had come on in relief of starter Mulready in the top of the fifth, hit a two-run single to give his team a 4-2 lead heading to the top of the sixth.With the teams scheduled to play as many as four games in four days, pitch counts and having pitchers left available was at a premium and West was trying to get McCullough to the finish line without losing him for the rest of the tournament.But Hamilton-Wenham had other ideas as No. 9 batter Wes Leonard cranked a two-run shot to tie the game at 4-4. McCullough would leave moments later in favor of Jake Murphy.He immediately was in trouble as Will Jones walked before Aidan Cann blasted his second homer of the game to give his team a 7-4 lead.?I really put Jake in a tough spot there,” said Silva after the game. “He hadn?t pitched in six weeks.”Suddenly facing a three-run deficit, West hitched up its boots and fought back. With one out, Jack Flaherty and Murphy drew walks to bring the top of the order up in the form of Mulready. He didn?t waste much time as he launched a shot to deadlock things at 7-7.West got the winning run on base with two outs but Mike Sabella was retired to force extra innings.Murphy worked a fairly routine top of the seventh, giving his mates a chance to win it. Castrachini didn?t wait long to end things as he cranked the first pitch he saw out of the park to give Peabody the dramatic win.The crazy finish came after a relatively quiet start as it was scoreless until the top of the third when Cann gave H-W a 2-0 lead when he hit one out against Mulready.Jones, meanwhile, had kept West scoreless through three innings but he exited at 65 pitches. Cann took over in relief and West rallied as Mike Silva?s sacrifice fly made it 2-1 before Flaherty doubled to tie it at 2-2.McCullough would get out of a jam in the top of the fifth before he gave Peabody its first lead in the bottom of the inning and set the stage for the frantic finish.?It?s tough, especially, with the pitch count stuff,” Silva said. “They took out (Jones) after (65) pitches and things changed up a bit. We went the distance with John and then the goal was to try and win the game in some way.”