Baseball Roundup: Lynn English closes on a strong note

The Lynn English baseball team won?t come away with a Northeastern Conference/North title this year ? Peabody made sure of that on Wednesday ? but the Bulldogs will likely be playing at home to open the state tournament thanks to a 17-4 win over Salem on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs finish the regular season 14-6, winning nine of their final 11 games. English ended a game behind the Tanners in the NEC/North standings with a 12-4 mark to Peabody?s 13-3.
?These kids have worked really hard and it was nice to see us bounce back after losing to Peabody (on Tuesday),” Bulldogs coach Joe Caponigro said.
English scored early and it scored often against the Witches (2-18). The Bulldogs struck for a pair of runs in the first and tacked on two more in the second and fifth innings. Four runs in the sixth were followed by a five in the seventh.
Kyle O?Connor led the offense, with three hits, four RBIs and three runs scored.
Anthony de la Cruz had three hits and scored four runs, with two RBIs.
Brett Holey scattered six hits with four strikeouts over six innings. Kenny Sanchez came on in the seventh, striking out two.
?Our pitching has been outstanding, especially in the second half,” Caponigro said. “Lucas (Harris), Jeam (Castillo) and Brett have thrown strikes and hit their spots. And defensively, we?ve been pretty solid behind them.”
Danvers 4, Swampscott 1
The Falcons clinched their ninth NEC/South title in the last 11 years deficit behind timely hitting and strong pitching by Andrew Olszak.
Swampscott?s (12-6) Ryan January led off with a home run but the Falcons (16-3) responded with a two runs in the bottom of the first and one each in the second and third innings.
?We hit the ball hard but it found their gloves,” Big Blue coach Jason Calichman said.
Marblehead 6, Winthrop 2
The Magicians got a solid pitching performance from junior right-hander Garrett Keough to go with some clutch hitting. Marblehead must defeat Winthrop Thursday to clinch a tournament berth.
Marblehead (9-10) jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on a wild pitch and a Josh Tassinari RBI fielder?s choice. Winthrop tied the game in the second but the Magicians took the lead back for good in the home half when Tim Kalinowski scored on an error. Marblehead opened some breathing room in third as Drew Bisegna (2-for-3) scored on a wild pitch and Tassinari singled. Tom Rockett?s RBI triple in the fourth closed the scoring.
Keough struck out five and retired 17 of the last 18 he faced in a complete game, three-hitter.
Gloucester 9, Saugus 5
Lucas McRobb had a pair of homers while freshman pitcher John Mondello got the win.