By SCOT COOPER
MARBLEHEAD — Ernie Banks would have loved it at Seaside Park Saturday. The Magicians played two, and won two, over Boston English.
Marblehead rolled in the first game 9-1, and took game two by an 8-3 score.
The sweep improves Marblehead to 9-6, getting the Magicians closer to grabbing a state tournament spot with five games remaining.
The Bulldogs came into Marblehead on a five-game winning streak, and ran right into two hot Marblehead pitchers. Lefty Spencer Carr was dominant in Game 1, and Thomas Rockett went five innings for the win in game two, with relief help by Pete Morrison. It was Rockett’s first game of the year, missing 14 games after dislocating his kneecap in the preseason.
Marblehead coach Jason Tarasuik said it was good for his team to win its third straight game, after a stretch where it went 1-6. Marblehead opened the season with five straight wins.
“This was great, beautiful day for baseball at Seaside, and we needed this. We had a great start and then we really struggled a bit for a week or two, had some tough losses,” Tarasuik said. “Just a big turnaround for this team over the past week or so, we’re back to playing really, really good baseball, similar to how we were playing to start the season.”
In the first game, the first three batters in the Magicians lineup did a lot of damage to Boston English. James McCarthy, Drew Gally and Carr banged out eight hits, scored five runs and had five RBI between them to power the home team.
The game was tied 1-1 in the third inning, then Marblehead scored two in the third, two in the fifth, two in the sixth and capped it off with two more in the top of the seventh. Marblehead was the road team in the first game, a makeup for the May 5 game at Boston English that was rained out.
McCarthy did everything a leadoff hitter is supposed to do; he tripled, singled, walked twice, got hit by a pitch and stole two bases.
Carr was throwing strikes, he whiffed 12 batters, allowing five hits, and the Boston English run was unearned.
On offense, Gally and Carr both had three hits in game one, and Josh Tassinari went 3-for-3, two singles and a double.
The second game was a little tighter than the first; Marblehead had a 4-3 lead in the fifth when the Magicians put up a run and another three in the sixth to break the game open.
Rockett looked sharp in his first appearance, allowing four hits and striking out six over 5 1/3 innings. The first three hitters did it again for Marblehead; McCarthy walked twice, got hit by another pitch, and scored three runs. Gally was on base three times, and Carr knocked in two runs.
“We had a really tough loss against Danvers, but we didn’t hang our heads. We stepped up,” Tarasuik said. “We beat a very athletic Boston English team, the guys did a great job on a great day.”
