PHOTO BY ANNE MARIE TOBIN
Peabody West pitcher Chris Faraca had a no-hitter against Swampscott through 5 2/3 innings before he hit his 85-pitch limit on Friday afternoon.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
LYNN — You never what you are going to get when it comes to Little League games.
Except when Peabody West ace Chris Faraca is on the hill, that is.
Faraca got his third straight start in the District 16 tournament and he did not disappoint, no-hitting Swampscott for 5 2/3 innings to lead West past Swampscott, 4-0 at Wyoma’s Reinfuss Field.
Faraca mowed down one Swampscott batter after another, striking out the first eight before Matthew Schroeder finally put a ball in play, grounding out to second baseman Shawn Quintal.
Faraca retired the first 17 batters he faced before his bid for a perfect game was upended with a leadoff walk to pinch hitter Jonah Cadorette in the top of the sixth.
Faraca struck out the next two batters — his 14th and 15th of the game — before reaching his maximum-pitch count of 85. Dom Annese closed out the no-hitter with a walk and a nice play by shortstop Zach Fisher at short.
As good as Faraca was on the mound, his battery mate Harry Lynch, was the one who ended up perfect, going 3-for-3 at the plate with two doubles and three RBI.
“He has worked really hard and made a few adjustments, including moving down a bat size, and it has really paid off,” West manager (and father) Gary Lynch said. “I’m proud of him, he was clutch at the plate and also caught a great game.”
After Faraca struck out the side in the first, Peabody scored all the runs it needed in the bottom of the inning. Fisher led off with an infield hit and moved to second when Faraca was hit. Annese launched a shot to right that hit the top of the fence and dropped back on the field, with Fisher scoring easily from second. Annese was ruled out when he ran past Faraca, who went halfway waiting to see if the ball was caught. Two batters later, Lynch flared a double to right that scored Faraca, making it 2-0.
With two outs in the third, Peabody loaded the bases on back-to-back singles by Lynch and Tyler Fawcett and a walk by Tommy Tilas, but Swampscott starter Nate Marston dug deep and got the last Peabody batter on strikes.
“He was very crafty and threw a lot of different pitches and kept us off balance,” Gary Lynch said. “We had the bases loaded twice, but he managed to get out of the innings and did a really nice job tonight.”
In the fourth, Lynch had another big hit, this one a two-run, two-out bases loaded double to left center that scored Jeff Roach (walk) and Faraca (error) and made it 4-0.
“Jeff was huge for us tonight, he is always getting on base and just goes up and doesn’t come back to the dugout,” Gary Lynch said.
Another player singled out by Lynch was right fielder Nick Connolly, who came on in the top of the fourth and made a great catch.
“He came in cold, but really made an important catch on a very tough ball, which was huge for us,” Lynch said.
Fawcett had a multiple hit game with two singles.
Peabody (3-0) didn’t have much time to celebrate as it will play its second game in less than 24 hours this afternoon at 5 at Wyoma, taking on Nahant, which defeated Pine Hill 4-1 last night.
