LYNNFIELD — When a baseball team gets solid play in all three phases, the end result is a victory more often than not. Tuesday afternoon at Lynnfield High, the Pioneers strung together timely hits, received a valiant performance on the mound and made the plays on defense.
The end result was a 6-2 win over Cape Ann League rival Ipswich.
“We haven’t really been swinging the bats real well,” Lynnfield coach John O’Brien said. “We’ve been hot and cold. Today we swung the bats pretty well.”
Matt Fiore got the nod on the mound and gave the Pioneers a strong start. Fiore threw seven innings and allowed one earned run. The Tigers put runners on base in each inning but Lynnfield managed to work its way out of jams for the majority of the afternoon.
“Matt threw strikes,” O’Brien said. “He threw a lot of strikes. He walked a couple guys which is uncharacteristic of him. He pitched pretty well, we played pretty good defense behind him and we made the plays. I’ll take that.
“We got a nice job today from Jaret Simpson behind the plate,” O’Brien said. “He did a nice job calling the game. We’re mixing in more guys each game. We’re trying to find the guys that are going to help us win.”
The big hit came from Fernando Gonzalez’s bat, when the junior launched a grand slam over the centerfield fence in the bottom of the third inning to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 Pioneers lead. Gonzalez finished 1-for-2 with 4 RBI and one walk.
“Fernando’s swinging the bat well,” O’Brien said. “He hits the ball to all fields which is a big plus for him. Everybody figures he’s a pull hitter. For him to be able to go the other way with the ball, that helps him. He’s starting to come along alright.”
Cooper Marengi went 2-for-2 with three runs scored. Clayton, Cooper’s younger brother, went 2-for-3 with a pair of singles.
Ipswich jumped on an early Lynnfield error to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. That’s how it stayed until the top of the third when the Tigers took advantage of a leadoff walk to score another run, boosting their lead to 2-0.
The Pioneers turned the tables in the bottom of the third. A RBI single off Daniel Jameson’s bat allowed Jonathan Luders to score Lynnfield’s first run. Down 2-1, the Pioneers loaded the bases for Gonzalez, who changed the course of the game with one big swing. Gonzalez’s grand slam cleared the bases and gave Lynnfield a 5-2 lead.
Ipswich had its share of chances to get back into the game but the Tigers couldn’t string together the big hit to push any more runs across.
“The defense made plays and Matt bared down a bit, which is good,” O’Brien said. “We put ourselves in some of those positions with walks and a hit batsman to lead an inning. That kind of hurt us a little but the guys made the plays behind him.”
Lynnfield added one more run in the bottom of the fifth. Cooper Marengi led the inning with a double and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Gonzalez earned a walk, placing runners on first and third with no outs. Nicholas Giammarco hit a ground ball to shortstop, scoring Cooper Marengi on a fielder’s choice.
The win puts the Pioneers at 7-2 on the season, with a busy schedule on the horizon for the rest of the week. Lynnfield visits Manchester-Essex for another CAL clash Thursday afternoon (3:45), then the Pioneers have a non-conference tilt Friday night (7) at Malden.
“They’ll be two good games,” O’Brien said. “Manchester-Essex was very good last year. I know they have a lot of kids back. We can’t overlook them. We can’t think about Malden until we get past them. We have very good arms. Hopefully we’ll play great defense like we did today and get a few hits.”
