SWAMPSCOTT — Monday evening’s North Shore Baseball League semifinal game between the No. 1 Swampscott Sox and the No. 4 Peabody Champions had high stakes for both teams. The Sox, leading the best-of-five series 2-0, needed a win to complete the sweep and advance to the NSBL finals. Peabody, on the other hand, was looking to avoid elimination and keep its season alive.
Fueled by a 4-for-4 performance at the plate from leadoff hitter David Ruggiero and five shutout innings on the mound from pitcher David Hoar, the Champions kept their season alive with a 10-0 mercy rule win at Swampscott Middle School.
“We had our backs against the wall,” Peabody manager Mike Giardi said. “We saw it in Game 2. We just had to play a complete game and we knew we had to. As crazy as it sounds, getting 10 runs in this game is important. You want to end it. This park, especially with their hitters, they can get some runs up really quick.”
Peabody led 6-0 coming into the top of the sixth inning, when the Champions added four more runs to end the game early.
“We’ve been playing Swampscott for years,” Giardi said. “The rivalry has been the same every year, it’s been awesome. But we realized we had to come out here and play a complete game, that’s for sure.”
Peabody took the early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Chad Martin laced an RBI single to left-center, scoring Ruggiero, who led the inning off with a single.
Miscommunication on the basepaths hurt the Sox in the bottom half of the first as a scoring opportunity with runners on first and second and one out turned into an inning-ending double play for the Champions.
Peabody plated two more runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Ruggiero and Jon Cahill, stretching the Champions’ lead to 3-0. Ruggiero brought home Marc Crovo, while Cahill’s single to center scored Ruggiero.
“Games never really end until it’s actually over,” Giardi said. “We were saying when were up six runs that we needed even more at this park because they can hit. They could’ve had the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth and then next thing you know it can be four runs on the board really quick for them.”
Swampscott starter Chris Murphy kept the Champions off the board in the top of the third but Peabody bounced back to add two more runs in the fourth. Ruggiero hit a solo homerun to deep center to make it a 4-0 lead. After a groundout, Mark Shorey drew a two-out walk. Martin brought him home with a two-run home run, bumping the Champion’s lead to 6-0.
That was more than enough run support for Hoar, who tallied seven strikeouts in his five innings of work. The left-hander held a no-hitter through four innings before surrendering back-to-back singles to Brian Maynard and Richie Arias in the bottom of the fifth.
That was Swampscott’s best chance to climb back into the game but Hoar fanned the final three batters of the inning to preserve the shutout.
“David did a really good job,” Giardi said. “He has improved his mechanics, he has improved how he approaches hitters at the plate. He had his breaking ball working really well tonight. He had a lot of their lefties off-balance.”
“He (Hoar) was confident,” Giardi added. “That’s the big thing. You have to be confident with all your pitches. He’s done a really nice job for us.”
Martin’s two-RBI single in the sixth extended the Champion’s advantage to 8-0 and a Swampscott infield error allowed the final two runs of the night to come home for the 10-0 final.
With the win, Peabody forces a fourth game which will be played on Wednesday night (7:30 p.m.) at Twi Field.
