ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Drew Bisegna is welcomed by his teammates as he scores the winning run.
By KATIE MORRISON
MARBLEHEAD — The pitchers had center stage Thursday at Seaside Park, and the unfortunate part of it all was that one of them was going to lose.
And that was Swampscott’s Gavin Sullivan. And his coach felt nothing but bad for him afterward.
“I feel awful for him,” said Jason Calichman, after Marblehead lived up to its team mascot’s name by pulling some magic out of its hat with a seventh-inning walkoff single by Garret Keough, who started the game but did not factor into the decision, that proved the difference in a 2-1 win. “He pitched a great game, seven strikeouts and five hits. But we didn’t make the plays behind him.
“We made some mistakes on the bases, and we didn’t do the little things that win games. Didn’t get some bunts down. And that’s how you lose tight games.”
The game was scoreless into the fifth inning, although the Magicians had tried to get something going an inning earlier. James McCarthy led off with a walk and swiped second. Drew Gally laid down a bunt that was fielded by Sullivan, who fired to AJ Venuti for the out at first. Venuti then fired home, and catcher Louis Olivieri held onto the throw as McCarthy, who was barreling in, was out on a close play.
The Blue made a couple of the aforementioned basepath errors in the top of the fifth, running into two outs. Marblehead made them pay in the bottom of the inning.
Keough smacked a liner to left, and a bad hop allowed him to take second. Josh Tassinari followed with a base hit that scored Keough.
It stayed that way until the top of the seventh, when Swampscott pushed across the tying run.
“I have to give us credit for that,” said Calichman. “We showed some grit.”
A leadoff walk to Corey Bleau gave the Big Blue some life. But the Big Blue ran into some tough luck after that as Sullivan hit a long fly ball that probably would have out of any park that had a fence. But this was Seaside, where “out of the park” means “Atlantic Avenue.” And at Seaside, the long fly ball was caught.
That left it up to Sean Lahrizi, and he didn’t disappoint. He crushed a two-strike single into center field that brought home pinch-runner Spencer Perkins. At that point, Tom Rockett came on in relief of starter Keough and got the last out.
The momentum shifted fast in the bottom of the inning. Sullivan, who had allowed just three hits through the first six innings, gave up a leadoff single to Drew Bisegna, who took second on a passed ball. That set the stage for Keough, who slapped the winning hit to right-center field.
Swampscott finishes the regular season at 13-7 (10-6 in the Northeastern Conference/South), while Marblehead, 10-5 in the NEC/South, has one NEC game left, Monday against Revere. Should the Magicians win, they’d capture the league title outright. A loss would leave them with in a tie with the Big Blue.
“Our first goal is to win the league,” said Calichman, “but now we have the bigger goal.”
The teams await the MIAA pairings, which come out Tuesday.
