Lynn Shore bats come alive as they continue on in City Series tournament

LYNN – Thanks in part to an eight-run first inning, the Lynn Shore Braves defeated the West Lynn Athletics, 13-2, in 3 ? innings in a losers? bracket game of the City Series tournament. The win keeps Lynn Shore alive, but it will need to rattle off four straight wins to take the city title.
?We have to play a lot of games in a lot of days in the losers? bracket,” said Braves coach Paul Hartford. “We?ll have to win on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday to win this thing.”
Jerimies Brito got the win on the mound for Lynn Shore, pitching the first 2 ? innings and recording five strikeouts. Damian Guadarrama came in to finish the game for Lynn Shore, recording four strikeouts in his 1 ? innings of work.
?Jerimies started and we wanted to leave him at 65 pitches so he can be available Saturday, if necessary, and Damian only threw 20 pitches, which was great,” Hartford said. “We have a lot of games coming up so it?ll be good to have both of those guys.”
It was West Lynn that struck first in the game, grabbing two runs in the top of the first. The Athletics moved runners to second and third with two outs for starting pitcher Josh Lessard. He helped his own cause by knocking an RBI single to go up, 1-0. On the next play, West Lynn grabbed another run on a double steal.
But Lynn Shore had an immediate answer, moving runners to second and third for Aiven Cabral with no outs, and he hit a two-run single to tie the game. After two walks to load the bases, Cabral stole home to give the Braves a lead. Two batters later, Isaiah McDonald grabbed an RBI on a walk to extend the lead to two runs.
Lessard struck out the next hitter, but then Antonio Smith came to the plate with two outs and the bases still loaded. He crushed a bases-clearing triple over the right fielder?s head to break the game open, 7-2. The Braves added another run to cap off the big inning, scoring on a passed ball.
Lynn Shore was right back at it in the bottom of the second. Cabral led off with a single, then Guadarrama knocked him in with an RBI double. The next batter, Ray Contreras, followed that with another RBI double to plate Guadarrama. Contreras was able to score when the throw to the cutoff man got away, and Lynn Shore stretched its lead to nine.
The bottom of the third went pretty much the same way. Guadarrama led off with his second double of the game, then Contreras hit his second RBI double to score Guadarrama. The Braves added their last run when Brito singled in Contreras.
Guadarrama came out throwing heat in the fourth and final inning, setting the West Lynn hitters down in order to clinch the win via the mercy rule.
?We hit the ball very well and we were patient at the plate,” Hartford said. “With that and the good baserunning, pitching and defense, we got a big lead and were able to kind of put it on cruise control.”
Mike Alongi can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @m_alongi.