LYNN — Swampscott Little League established itself as one of the elite teams in the District 16 Little League tournament Tuesday night with a thorough 10-0, five-inning victory over West Lynn at Pine Hill’s Spagnoli Field.
The Swampscott bats knocked the ball around to the tune of 12 hits while its pitcher, Dawson DiBarri, allowed only two hits.
“He really knows how to pitch,” said Swampscott manager Joe McGonagle. “In, out, up, down. He’s a gamer. The moment doesn’t get too big for him.
“This was a good start for us,” he said. “Everybody got in, both at bat and in the field, and the kids had aggressive at-bats. It was a good night.”
On the other side of the field, West Lynn’s Eric Hannabury bemoaned the lack of hitting.
“The bats fell asleep,” he said. “But for the most part we played good defense.
“It always comes down to one or two key plays, and we didn’t make those tonight,” said Hannabury. “Their kid pitched a great game. Hats off to him.”
Swampscott set the tone with two runs in the first and another pair in the second.
In the first, a wild pitch brought home Daniel Dominiconi, who had reached on a fielder’s choice and taken third on Liam Wales’ single. Wales came home on Quinn Hitchcock’s two-bagger.
In the second, Wales knocked in two of his five RBI with a base hit, with an error allowing him to take second.
West Lynn pitcher Ben Marciano seemed to find his groove in the third inning, but still Swampscott loaded the bases before he induced DiBarri to ground out to second.
It was only a momentary respite. Swampscott scored three runs each in the fourth and fifth innings. Quinn Fitzpatrick’s fielder’s choice ground ball was misplayed, with two runs coming cross, and Wales knocked in the other one on a ground ball out.
In the next inning, Wales’ bases-loaded single scored two runs and Hitchcock’s double brought home the other.
Swampscott is back in action Thursday (5:45) with a winner’s bracket game against Nahant. West Lynn plays Winthrop Saturday.
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Saugus American 12, Peabody 8
The Saugus American all-stars jumped out to a 7-1 after the top of the third and never looked back, defeating defending champion Peabody, 12-8, in the opening round of the District 16 tournament at MacArthur Park. Too many errors and lack of timely hitting proved to be Peabody’s undoing, which left nine runners on base. Saugus’ Dylan Clark had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with four RBI and one run scored, while leadoff hitter Jacob Bierenbroodspot was on base in all four of his at-bats, going 2-for-2 with two runs scored and two RBI. Shane Bourque was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and an RBI and Cam Preston was 2-fwith an RBI.
For Peabody, Colin Ridley (2-for-4, 2 runs), Josh Sigmon (2-for-3, 2 runs, 2 RBI), Cam Connolly (2-for-3, 2 runs, RBI) and Michael Petro (2-for-3, RBI double) had multiple-hit games.
Next up for Saugus is Lynnfield Thursday night (5:45) at East Lynn.
“I don’t know too much about them except they seem to be everyone’s consensus pick as the team to beat,” said Saugus manager Michael Digirolamo. “We hope that we can leverage the momentum from this game and keep it going in the next one.”
Peabody will play the loser of Wednesday’s Pine Hill/East Lynn game on Sunday at Swampscott at 2.
“We had trouble getting that third out in a couple of innings, and couldn’t make some plays on some easy grounders,” said Peabody manager Rick DeLoreto. “We just couldn’t get the big hit when we had the bases loaded. We just didn’t have it tonight.”
