FILE PHOTO
Lynnfield’s Pat D’Amico.
By Anne Marie Tobin
BILLERICA — In a rock-’em sock-’em affair, the Lynnfield 12-year old baseball team kept its Bay State League Tournament of Champions title hopes alive with a 14-11 win in nine innings over Stoneham. The game was a marathon, and more than two and one-half hours old when Tyler Scoppettuolo finally ended the madness in the bottom of the ninth inning with a 3-run home run high over the Forsythe Field sign in straightaway center field.
Lynnfield was down to its final at bat twice, but each time it rallied to tie and extend the game into another inning.
Luke Martinho had a big day at the plate, going 4-for-6 with two doubles, an RBI and three runs scored, while Scoppettuolo was 2-for-5 with four RBI. Starter Pat D’Amico (4 runs scored) and Aiden Burke also smacked home runs.
Lynnfield was in total control through the first three innings with a 7-0 lead and D’Amico giving up only one hit in the same stretch.
That all changed after D’Amico left the game in the top of the fourth due to pitch count limitations. Stoneham stormed back with five runs to cut Lynnfield’s lead to 7-5. A D’Amico home run in the bottom half of the inning bumped the Lynnfield lead back up to three at 8-5.
Stoneham chipped away with a run in the top of the fifth and looked to be dead in the water in the top of sixth when the first two batters were retired. However, a hit batter and back-to-back walks loaded the bases for Josh Nardone. Nardone knocked the first pitch he saw out of the park for a grand slam home run to give Stoneham its first lead of the game at 10-8.
D’Amico led off the bottom of the inning and reached on a two-base infield error. Scoppettuolo jumped all over a fast ball and brought D’Amico home with a single to center field. Scoppettuolo got to third on consecutive wild pitches and scored on Chris Wythe’s sacrifice fly to left to send the game into extra innings.
Martinho came on in relief in the top of the seventh and was greeted by a Lynnfield error that put Stoneham’s Gavin Tobias at second with no outs. Martinho struck out the next two batters, then got out of the inning unscathed when Burke threw out Tobias attempting to steal third.
After Stoneham took an 11-10 lead in the top of the eighth with an unearned run, Lynnfield matched it in its half when Nick Marotta hit a one-out double to left, then scored from second after Spencer Riley’s grounder back to the mound was thrown into right field.
Martinho dodged another bullet in the top of the ninth when Stoneham starter Jack Mahoney reached on an infield error, but Martinho got the next three batters swinging.
In the bottom of the inning, Martinho helped his own cause with a one-out line drive double to the fence in left. A D’Amico walk set the table for Scoppettuolo’s dramatic finish.
“Win or lose, it was just a great game,” Lynnfield manager Tony Martinho said. “This game was typical of our entire season; we were up, we were down, we had good hitting, we had bad fielding. The most consistent thing about this team is our inconsistency, but they don’t give up.
“Going down like that 10-8 in the sixth, it would have been easy to give up, but they never did, they just kept believing they could win the game and they did.”
Lynnfield plays Medford Friday (6) at Forsythe Field. On Tuesday, Medford scored four unearned runs to beat Lynnfield 4-3 and send Lynnfield to the losers’ bracket.
