LYNN — It’s tough to beat your crosstown rival when you don’t score. The Lynn English baseball team learned that the hard way Friday night at Fraser Field.
In what’s becoming a routine, Classical starting pitcher Kyle Finnigan brought his best in an 8-0 Rams win. Finnigan pitched to contact but Classical’s defense backed him. He fanned just one English batter and allowed four hits in seven shutout innings.
“Kyle puts us in good positions to win games,” Classical coach Mike Zukowski said. “He threw his outs tonight. We talked about it before the game, we said ‘you don’t have to strike everyone out. You just have to throw the pitches to get your outs.’ Some of those outs were deep fly balls to the warning track, but they’re outs.”
“Classical beat us,” English coach Doug Mullins said. “They outplayed us early on. We laced a couple balls and we hit them hard but they made some great plays. Sean Devin made a great play at the fence on a ball that Alex Rodriguez smoked. They ran the bases well and made the most of their opportunities.”
English starter Devin Curley tossed five solid innings and kept the Bulldogs in the game. Curley allowed four earned runs before handing the ball to his bullpen in the bottom of the sixth.
“Devin pitched Monday and came back a day early,” Mullins said. “He battled. He had guys off balance early. The first time Classical got on the board was because of defensive mistakes. He got tired a little earlier than he would and fell behind in a couple counts. That’s where Classical took advantage but Devin pitched a great game regardless.”
After two and a half scoreless innings, Classical took a 2-0 lead with back to back RBI singles from Dayshon Anderson and Aidan Dow. Classical added a run to its lead in the bottom of the fourth when leadoff hitter AJ Luciano laced a triple to deep right-field, scoring Danny Lilja who reached on a fielder’s choice.
“We’ve really been working on our approach in practice,” Zukowski said. “Tons of swings, working hard at it and today we had some big hits. Dow and Anderson had two big hits in that (third) inning with a runner on second base. You can’t ask for anything better than that.”
David Barnard led the bottom of the fifth with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After back to back fly outs, Barnard scored on a RBI infield single from Brett Bucklin. The Rams led 4-0 after five.
While Classical was building its lead, English’s bats were finding Rams gloves throughout the night. Every time there was a play to be made, Classical made it.
“AJ made one of the nicest plays I’ve seen in my tenure here at shortstop, with a great dive and a throw,” Zukowski said. “Then he came across the mound later in the game and made another great play. Dayshon stepped up at third. Things are starting to click for us.”
Things went south for English in the bottom of the sixth, when Classical plated four runs to put the game out of reach. Finnigan and Lilja raced home on a pair of passed balls to boost Classical’s lead to 6-0. Dow and Bucklin added RBI singles to extend the lead to 8-0.
“We’ve played four games in five days and we had limited options,” Mullins said. “We made it work with what we could. We made a couple mistakes and we weren’t able to grind it out. We just have to come back from it.”
Finnigan retired English in order in the seventh to ice the win. English’s four hits, all singles, came from the bats of Erick Ubri, Rafi Rosado, Wilbur Rosario and Briston Maynard.
Both teams are back in action Monday. Classical (6-5) visits Medford, while English (3-6) hosts Danvers in hopes of snapping a six-game slide.
“We just have to keep going to work,” Mullins said. “We have to keep getting better. Baseball’s a funny sport like that. If you keep battling the opportunities will go your way eventually. That’s what we need to do.”
