Legion All-Stars have local flavor

LYNN – The District 8 Legion Baseball season came to an end on Sunday evening at Fraser Field with the North All-Stars scoring an 8-6 victory over their South counterparts, a team made up of an entire cast of familiar names.Ballplayers from Danvers, Lynn, Peabody, Saugus and Swampscott/Marblehead joined forces for the South under manager Len Ferrari (Saugus), who was at the helm for a second consecutive summer.?The majority of the team already was familiar with one another from playing each other throughout the summer,” explained Ferrari, who enjoyed the experience despite the defeat.Things got off to an interesting start, to say the least, with the South (playing as the visiting team) putting up a four-spot in its first trips to the plate.After Saugus? Steve Lima was retired on a leadoff groundout, Matt Costanza (Lynn) and Garret Keough (Swampscott/Marblehead) recorded consecutive singles before moving up on a double steal. Lucas Harris (Lynn) followed with an RBI groundout to second, breaking the ice.Keough would come around with help from a throwing error, which allowed Swampscott/Marblehead?s Harrison Engstrom (walk) to reach third.Payton Jancy (Swampscott/Marblehead) followed with an RBI infield single before scoring after a throwing error from Haverhill pitcher Joe Carter.The lead wouldn?t last as the hosts tied the score in the bottom half.North Andover?s Jack Weir laced a two-run single to left-center scoring Briahiam Ortega (Lawrence) and Billy Haneffant (Methuen), who had reached on an error and single, respectively, to open the frame.Nick Worden (Lawrence) added an RBI single that scored Danny Aziz (walk), who had followed Weir after the South got caught throwing the ball around.?The first inning was pretty ugly for both sides,” reflected Ferrari. “Both pitchers seemed a little nervous and struggled because of it. That kind of thing happens a lot in games like this but both teams settled in nicely.”Two more tallies in the second off Jason McCannon (Danvers) provided the North with a lead that would stand up until the eighth inning.Josh Martinez (Methuen) registered an RBI single, scoring Brandon Thibault (Haverhill), who had reached on a two-out single. The former came around after a double to left-center from Timmy Kalanatzakos (Andover).Danvers? Frank Soucy and David Hoar of Peabody turned in impressive performances on the mound, where they combined for five shutout innings spanning innings three through seven.The former allowed a hit and two walks in two innings before the latter impressed in three innings of hitless work, which featured five strikeouts.Meanwhile, solo runs in the fourth and eighth left the score at a stalemate.Engstrom plated Harris (reached on an error) with an RBI double in the former frame before Matt Gonic lofted a sacrifice fly to left, allowing Peabody teammate Mike Petrosino to score the equalizer.Lynn?s Andre Gaudet would be left on third as the go-ahead run.Showing a sense of urgency, the North responded in resilient fashion in the inning?s bottom half, grabbing the contest?s final two runs.Newburyport?s Dan Rose and Thibault came up with consecutive RBI singles, scoring Jorge Martinez (Haverhill) and Andrew Selima (Andover).Ryan St. Pierre would reach on a passed-ball third strike to begin the ninth before Justin Cashman (Newburyport) retired three of the next four batters to secure the save.?These are all up-and-coming ballplayers with bright futures ahead of them,” lauded Ferrari of both sides? rosters. “They all played hard tonight and it turned into a pretty exciting game.”