LYNNFIELD — It just wasn’t the Lynnfield baseball team’s day.
Tuesday afternoon at Lynnfield High, the Pioneers couldn’t find a way to solve Hamilton-Wenham starting pitcher Paul Horgan. While Horgan was shutting down the Pioneers bats Lynnfield hung tight for six innings, trailing 4-0. A tough top of the seventh saw the Generals add six runs to their lead for a 10-0 win.
“He (Horgan) only had three strikeouts,” Pioneers coach John O’Brien said. “The kid threw strikes. He did a great job. We made some mistakes. We made four errors and that was the difference. We had guys on base but we couldn’t get a hit.”
Horgan, a junior, made quick work of the Pioneers from start to finish. He threw a no-hitter in his previous start on the mound and followed that performance with a one-hitter Tuesday. Lynnfield’s lone hit of the afternoon came in the bottom of the sixth when Matt Fiore beat out an infield single.
“Paul’s a gamer,” Generals coach Reggie Maidment said. “He played for me last year as a center fielder and he was the best center fielder we had. He throws strikes, he can command inside and outside and he has a really good curveball.”
Pioneers starting pitcher Fiore threw five solid innings and kept Lynnfield within striking distance. Fiore allowed four earned runs and seven hits with two strikeouts. Daniel Jameson came on in relief in the sixth and kept the Generals off the board until Lynnfield ran into trouble in the seventh.
Fiore worked his way out of jams with runners on second and third in the first two innings. The third time proved to be the charm for the Generals, as Hamilton-Wenham scored runs on a RBI groundout from Everett Wonson and a RBI single from Conor Evers in the top of the third to claim a 2-0 advantage.
Jonathan Luders drew a walk to leadoff the bottom of the fourth. Luders advanced to second base on Jameson’s sacrifice bunt and took third after a groundout by Fiore. With two outs and Luders at third, Cooper Marengi sent a towering fly ball to deep centerfield but it was caught on the warning track.
“Their kid made a nice catch,” O’Brien said. “He went a long way to make that catch. Our centerfielder (William Garofoli) made a couple nice catches. It could’ve been more (runs). It just wasn’t our day. I think the kids played hard but we just had a tough time getting the clutch hits.”
Hamilton-Wenham plated two more runs in the top of the fifth. The first came on Adam Parady’s RBI double after a leadoff walk, boosting the Generals lead to 3-0. Parady stole third and came home on an errant throw to make it a 4-0 game.
Lynnfield put two runners on base in the bottom halves of the fifth and sixth innings but the Pioneers couldn’t push any runs across.
Hamilton-Wenham put the game out of reach in the top of the seventh. Five singles, two walks, one hit batsman, one passed ball and one sacrifice-fly equated to six runs scored by the Generals. When it was all said and done, Hamilton-Wenham turned a 4-0 lead into a 10-0 runaway.
“Dan’s pitched well for us all year,” O’Brien said. “They put a couple balls in play and we didn’t make the plays. A couple walks, a hit batter, a passed ball. He threw well but they hit the ball. Hamilton-Wenham’s a nice team.”
Horgan retired the Pioneers in order in the bottom of the seventh to ice the victory.
“We played solid defense behind Paul and we have all year long,” Maidment said. “Today we needed the clutch hits to happen and we got them. We haven’t had that happen in the last few games so it was good for us to breakout. Lynnfield’s a scary team to play and they’re well-coached. I was proud of how our kids came out and put those hits together.”
Lynnfield (5-2) hosts Georgetown Thursday (3:45).
