North Shore Phillies bow out of NSBL playoffs

LYNN – The North Shore Phillies saw any chance of repeating as North Shore Baseball League champs go down the chute Monday with a 13-2 loss to Kingston in the second round of the playoffs.The Night Owls, the team the Phillies beat in the finals last year, had it all going in the best of five series. They only allowed three runs in four games. Kingston won the first game, 6-0, but the teams waged war over the weekend, with the Phillies winning 1-0 on Saturday and Kingston, 1-0 on Sunday. And thoughts that game four would be another barnburner died early for the Phillies when Kingston put five runs on the board in the top of the first inning.Kingston pitcher P.J. Singster, who graduated from Colby-Sawyer College this year, had a no-hitter going into the bottom of the fifth when the Phillies? Rick Vail spoiled the bid with a solo home run that made the score 11-1. The Phillies? only other run came in the bottom of the sixth when Mike LaMothe doubled to center field with one out and scored on a Ryan Beliveau single.?We just lost to a team that?s playing really well,” Phillies manager Jeff Blydell said. “They hit the ball well, one through nine. I believe they led the league in home runs. Their pitcher was outstanding.”Blydell said the 1-0 loss on Sunday was a tough one.?I think it took the wind out of our sails,” Blydell said. “We left 10 men on base, four of them on third. Sometimes you don?t recover and we didn?t recover tonight.”Matt Burnham (Lynn English/Salem State) started for the Phillies but struggled. Kingston?s Nick Comei led off the game with a triple and things went downhill for North Shore in a hurry. He scored on a single by Colin Walsh and the floodgates were open. Kingston loaded the bases and on one of the stranger plays of the game, three runs ended up scoring on a sacrifice fly (two of the three came home on errors on the relay) and the Night Owls led 5-0 before the Phillies got to bat.Kingston made it 8-0 in the top of the second on a Walsh home run over the right field fence. When Kyle Neverman followed with a double, Blydell went to the bullpen. Joan Mota gave up an RBI double to Joe Morin and one to Duval and the Night Owls were up 8-0 after two.Kingston made it 11-0 in the fourth on Mike Ferriero?s three-run home run, prompting Blydell to go to the bullpen again, this time for Greg Richards. Ferreiro, a Bentley University graduate, added a solo home run in the top of the seventh and another run scored on an infield single for the 13-2 final.Night Owls coach Paul Sartori said the team has benefited from excellent pitching and defense all season. He said Singster has an earned-run average under one. This was his fourth win.Kingston is waiting on the winner of the Peabody Champions-Beverly Recs series, which is tied at two games each after Beverly pulled out a 1-0 win Monday night. The deciding game in that series is tonight at 7:45 p.m. at Twi Field in Danvers.