ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Peabodty’s Justin Powers, center, slides in safely with the winning run for Peabody as Ryan Brunet, right, comes in to celebrate.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
LYNN — Two minutes. That’s all it took to transform Saturday’s District 16 final between Peabody and Peabody Western, won by Peabody 4-3 in seven innings at Pine Hill’s Gallagher Park, into one that will be remembered for a very long time.
Peabody will now play in the Massachusetts Section 4 tournament, beginning Wednesday at Wyoma’s Reinfuss Field, where it’ll face former District 15 rival Gloucester at 7:30. Games against Andover National (Thursday, 7:30) and Reading (Friday, 7:30) will follow.
The two top teams will play Saturday at 6:30. All the games are at Wyoma.
Through five innings Saturday, Peabody had a stranglehold over West, leading 3-0, thanks to a dominant effort from Peabody starter Justin Powers, who held West to just three baserunners, only one of whom made it past first base, and timely hitting from Carson Browne (leadoff home run) and pinch hitter Matt Richards (RBI single).
With one out in the top of the sixth and West starter Zach Fisher on first (fielder’s choice), Powers struck out the dangerous Giovanni Guglielmo, and the Peabody faithful was feeling it, it being its first district championship since 1997.
West, however, was also feeling it.
Down to its last out, 11-year-old Nick Villano blasted a 2-run homer over the fence in right and, suddenly, West had new life trailing by just one run, 3-2. Tyler Fawcett followed, smashing a 1-0 fastball over the left field fence to tie the game at 3-3. Villano’s homer was the third in his last three games.
After Fisher struck out Peabody’s top of the order in the bottom of the inning it was on to the seventh, and what a seventh it turned out to be.
With one out and runners at first and third, Powers reached his pitch count. Browne came on in relief and promptly walked Thomas Fabbo to load the bases for Fisher. Browne caught him looking, then got out of the jam, unscathed, when shortstop Roberts Galvis fielded a grounder and stepped on second for the force.
In the bottom of the frame, Powers reached on an infield error and got to second on a passed ball. Daniel Zizza walked and both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch. With Ryan Brunet at the plate, Powers took off for home on a wild pitch, sliding in safely after the ball took a fortuitous bounce off home plate.
“I think he just saw the ball get away and went for it, he wasn’t going to wait for another chance,” said manager Justin Powers. “I was all ready to take the blame. I called terrible pitches in that last inning (sixth). Credit to their guys (Villano and Fawcett), they hit ‘em but the guys bailed me out today. Somebody had to win and somebody had to lose, and I’m glad it was our team that won. “We have talked all year long about how you need to win games in different ways, and today we had some big at-bats from a lot of different hitters.”
Peabody got off to a slow start. With one out, Powers plunked Fisher, who advanced to second on Guglielmo’s single. Villano hit a rocket that deflected off Powers right to second baseman Danny Barrett, who flicked it back-handed to Galvis to get Guglielmo on the force and fired to first for the inning-ending double play.
Browne led off the bottom of the inning and he sliced a shot over the fence in right to stake Peabody to a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way until the fourth when Peabody scratched out two more runs to lead 3-0.
With one out, pinch hitter Ryan Rice singled up the middle. Barrett re-entered as a pinch runner and got to second on a wild pitch. Brunet walked and pinch hitter Cam Connolly loaded the bases with a clutch single to left. A wild pitch brought Barrett home with Connolly and Brunet advancing to second and third, respectively. With first base open, Browne was intentionally walked. Next up was Galvis, who made West pay with an RBI single that scored Brunet and made it a 3-0 game.
Peabody had a chance to put the game out of reach in the fifth and had the bases loaded with one out, but Guglielmo, who had relieved Fisher after Fisher reached his pitch count earlier in the inning, regrouped and struck out the final two batters to escape the jam and set up West’s wild and dramatic sixth inning.
“We felt that if we won this game we would have carried the momentum into the next game. That kind of energy can get the kids to run through a wall,” said West manager Steve Porcella. “We had our chances in the top of the seventh we just couldn’t push a run through. We were right there I would have loved it , but that’s the kind of ride these kids will never forget. Too bad it had to end the way it did, but we’re happy it’s another Peabody team that ended up winning, although it will be tough in school when they rub it in, but we’ll come back and get ‘em next year.”
In 6 ⅓ innings, Powers allowed three earned runs on four hits with 10 strikeouts, while Browne walked one, struck out one and allowed one hit in two-thirds of an inning.
Fisher gave up two earned runs in four innings on five hits and struck out nine, while Guglielmo pitched three innings of no-hit ball and struck out six.
Amazingly, neither team committed an error.
