SWAMPSCOTT — Jake White singled and scored in the top of the 11th inning Sunday, to knock in the winning run as the Kingston Night Owls outlasted the Swampscott Sox, 7-6, to win the North Shore Baseball League title.
It was the fourth time in the series the teams went to extra innings.
Both teams won two extra-inning games, with the Night Owls holding off a big charge by Swampscott, who trailed 3-1 in games.
Things started off well for the Sox, who jumped ahead 1-0 in the bottom of the second, scoring their first run off of Knight Owls starter Sean Callahan. Neither Callahan nor the Sox starter, Mike Richardson was around when this marathon ballgame came to an end.
Brian Maynard and Esteban Paula hit back-to-back singles, and both moved up on a single by Junior Santos. Kyle O’Connor drove Maynard in with an infield hit, but Kingston escaped further damage with an inning-ending double play.
As they have done quite a few times in this 7-game series, the Night Owls grabbed the lead in the top of the third with three off of Richardson. Nick Comei drove in Nick Shumski with a single, and Steve Gerossie made it 3-1 with a 2-run single.
The first of two dramatic blasts by the Sox made it 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth. Elvis Rodriguez smashed one deep into the woods behind the left field fence. Paula had walked in front of Rodriguez.
The Night Owls scored one more off of Richardson, who was lifted in favor of Chris Murphy, who was touched up for a couple, making it 6-3. The Kingston lead would not last very long.
In the home half of the sixth, Maynard dropped a double into right field, and scored on another double by the next batter, Clemente Parra. Parra got a nice view from second base as Junior Santos crushed one over the fence in left-center to make it a 6-6 ballgame.
Kingston was leading in the series, three games to one, with the Sox staying alive with big wins in game five at home ant game six on the road. Kingston manager Paul Satori saying he wouldn’t be surprised if the series went seven games, even though he wasn’t thrilled his team would have to come back to Swampscott after dropping game six Saturday night.
Junior Santos took over for Murphy and he allowed a baserunner in the seventh and a couple of hits in the top of the eighth, but nobody got past second base for Kingston. Ryan Corriveau had pitched a perfect seventh and eighth, and gave way for Joe Levasseur in the ninth. Levasseur sat down quickly, getting three putouts on seven pitches.
The Sox had a great chance to win in the bottom of the tenth, but had a runner thrown out at the plate with the bases loaded. White had three hits for
