ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Danny Reddick of Pine Hill enters the dugout pumped after scoring in the third inning against Peabody White on Wednesday.
By SCOT COOPER
SWAMPSCOTT — Pine Hill’s 12-year old Little League all-stars got six solid innings on the mound from David Brown, and his mates cranked out 10 hits in a 10-4 win over Peabody White in a District 16 tournament game.
It was the tournament opener for Pine Hill, which got the opening-round bye. Peabody White falls into the loser’s bracket in the double-elimination format, where it will play again after July 4.
Brown and Peabody’s Justin Powers cruised through the first two innings, then Pine Hill got rocking in the third, scoring four times, grabbing a lead it would not relinquish.
Peabody manager Justin Powers said his team needed to get Brown in a higher pitch count, because he got stronger as the innings went on.
“We helped him a little bit, I think, we swung at too many first pitches and didn’t work the count on him (Brown) very well, we need to fix that for the next game,” Powers said. “We also had a couple of misplays in the field that hurt us, and we left too many runners on base in most of the innings.”
The top of the order came up in the top of the third for Pine Hill. Brown walked to start the frame and moved up on a single by Junell Leon. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch, then scooted home on a single by Danny Reddick.
James Ball followed Reddick’s single with a hit of his own. Reddick scored on a wild pitch, and Willie Miller drove home Ball with the fourth single of the inning.
Pine Hill stayed with it the next inning as Reddick and Ball hit back-to-back homers over the right field fence. Pine Hill manager Rich Avery said those blasts really put a charge into his team.
“Those were the first homers of the season for both of those guys, they picked a great time to knock them out,” Avery said. “It gave us a big lift and David (Brown) was solid on the mound.”
Miller scored the third run of the inning when he came in on a wild pitch.
Peabody made it close in the bottom of the fifth, scoring all four of their runs. Jacob Palhares plated Jason Romans and Joey Raymond ahead of him when he drilled a three-run shot to center field. Brendan Smith reached on a single, went to third on a passed ball and scored the last Peabody run on a throwing error.
Pine Hill scored three in its half of the sixth, Kyle Candilieri scored on a single by Leon. Brown walked, and both runners scored on groundouts, before Peabody’s third pitcher of the game, Danny Barrett, got the last out.
Ball came on for Brown and set Peabody down. Ball ended the game with a great catch on the mound for the final out.
“I’m pleased with the effort, we did a great job tonight, it’s certainly nice to open up with a win,” Avery said.
