PHOTO BY JOYCE EREKSON
Lynn’s Nick Galeazzi bats during Tuesday night’s Babe Ruth game against Revere.
BY JOYCE EREKSON
SAUGUS — The Lynn Babe Ruth 13s went into Tuesday night’s final pool play game against Revere knowing they would be moving on to the state semifinals. Revere knew win or lose the season was over, but the game didn’t feel like there was little at stake.
Lynn won 10-8, but this one was a battle. Revere jumped out to a 5-0 lead, saw Lynn tie it up and then go ahead. Despite not having won a game in pool play, Revere made things interesting by tying the game at 6-6 and again at 8-8 in the fifth inning. Lynn would pull away for good with two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
“It was a great game,” Revere manager Richard DiMarzo said. “The kids showed up and played hard. They were in it to the last out … the kids were playing for pride today and it showed.”
Lynn will play the South No. 2 seed (to be determined) Thursday at 6 p.m. in the semifinals at World Series Park.
Lynn manager Dave Galeazzi shuffled his lineup around to give some players who had seen limited playing time some innings and they rose to the occasion.
Ray Contreras saw time at both first base and third base and was impressive. He made a terrific leaping catch on a line drive that was heading into no-man’s land down the right field line, dug a ball out of the dirt a few times and made some nice plays at third. Contreras also hit a pop up to center field in the first inning that was misplayed, allowing Lucas Fritz to score Lynn’s first run. He had a single up the middle in the second inning and in the bottom of the fourth, he ripped an RBI single to centerfield.
Revere came out on a mission in the top of the first. The first two batters reached on a walk and a single, but Lynn starting pitcher Jack Hogan fanned the three and four hitters and it looked like Lynn might escape relatively unscathed. That didn’t happen. Revere first baseman Anthony Pimental singled to center field to drive in Wil Martinez and Lucas Rincon. Hogan issued two more walks and Revere’s Dilyn Day made it hurt with a two-run single to right field that scored Pimental and Richie DiMarzo. Calvin Boudreau, who had one of the walks, scored on a wild pitch to give Revere a 5-0 lead.
Lynn started its comeback with a run in the bottom half of the inning, but it was the bottom of the second that did Revere in. Lynn batted through the order and did most of the damage with two outs. Revere got the first batter to fly out, but shortstop Jackson Nickolau ended up on third thanks to an errant throw on a dropped third strike. He scored on a grounder by Jeffrey Hill with two other runs coming in on a passed balls, one on a single by Sannel Castro. Hogan topped off the inning with a two-run single.
Revere came back to tie the game at 6-6 in the fourth inning on a single by Ryan Doucette, but Lynn proved relentless, scoring two in the bottom of the fourth to take an 8-6 lead. Contreras’ RBI single made it 7-6 and Rincon scored on a balk.
Revere had one more comeback in the tank. In the top of the fifth, Day beat out a throw to the plate on a ground ball and Martinez scored on a wild pitch to tie the game 8-8. Jared DeFillipo (who made a spectacular running catch in left field in the top of the seventh) came up with big pinch hit single to left field that scored Contreras from third for what would be the game-winner. Tobin singled and scored on an infield single for the 10-8 final.
Hogan started for Lynn and went four innings. Fritz finished up in relief and got the win. John Capozzi started for Revere with Martinez coming on in relief.
“We were very pleased to see how the kids battled back,” Galeazzi said. “We’ve been hitting the ball better the last two games. We’ve been getting a lot of line drives and hard grounders instead of pop ups.”
The state finals will be played Saturday at Boston College High.
