PHOTO BY PAULA MULLER
Swampscott’s Connor Correnti, right, is tagged out by Winthrop’s Colin Kinsella during a game on Friday.
By SCOT COOPER
LYNN — The Swampscott 12-year old all-stars got homers from Nathan DeRoche and Matt McIntire, offsetting a solo shot by Winthrop’s Tyler Rockefeller, and that paved the way to a 4-1 win.
DeRoche drove in Dylan Dubiel with his drive in the second inning, and McIntire hit his leading off the third inning, making the score 3-1.
Swampscott added another run in the third when Harry Riddell drove in Pierce Friedman with a single.
Rockefeller hit a moonshot where he’d been patrolling on defense — high over the center field fence in the top of the fourth, for the final run of the ballgame.
Rockefeller’s homer was just about it for offensive highlights for Winthrop, as the team managed three hits over six innings off of Friedman, and DeRoche came on and closed out the game in the seventh.
Friedman allowed a double by Sean Montgomery, Rockefeller’s homer and a double by Aidan Cash in the sixth. Cash didn’t stop running when he hit second base, Dubiel grabbed the ball off the right field fence, fired a strike to shortstop Jonah Cadorette, and he got it over quickly to DeRoche at third, and he slapped the tag on Cash.
Swampscott (2-0) manager Steve Correnti said Friedman threw strikes and his offense was aggressive at the plate.
“Our guys pounded the strike zone, made good pitches and we hit the ball pretty well,” Correnti said. “We had some home runs in the first game and a couple more tonight, so we’re being aggressive at the plate, which is great to see.”
Swampscott earned some time off, while Winthrop fell to 1-1, and will need a win Wednesday to stay alive in the double-elimination tourney.
Winthrop manager Tom Montgomery said his team has to put the ball in play more consistently, work the counts and dig in at the plate. Friedman whiffed nine Winthrop batters, four of them watching third strikes cross the plate.
“We’ve put ourselves in a little bit of a hole with this loss, we have to be much better at the plate,” Montgomery said. “Our guys (Sean Montgomery and Cash) pitched pretty well, we just didn’t have many good at-bats.”
“I told the kids they went out there and competed, with their fielding and their pitching, we need to do a better job at the plate in the next game,” Montgomery said. “We definitely have to work on our hitting getting ready for Wednesday, we need to have confidence when we get to the plate, get in there and take our hacks.”
Winthrop’s pitchers only allowed seven hits, but most were of the timely variety.
Correnti said he likes the progress his team has made over the past few weeks.
“Just a few weeks ago we were 14 guys from four teams, now we’ve come together to be 14 guys on one team,” Correnti said.
