LYNN — With the help of a great start by pitcher Colby Godwin, the Nahant Little League All-Stars rolled to an 18-1 win over Lynn Shore in the District 16 Tournament at Pine Hill Sunday night.
“We were on the other end in the previous game against Swampscott so our message is ‘feel good but be humble,'” Nahant Manager John DeCamp said.
Godwin pitched four innings in the shortened 5-inning game, allowing no earned runs, one hit, recording 10 strikeouts while walking only one batter and throwing 59 pitches.
“I thought Colby pitched great. He’s really our No. 1 pitcher. We’ve leaned on him a bit. Our two victories are when he started,” DeCamp said.
“We’ve had great pitching when we’ve won and we’ll continue for the next game.”
The Nahant offense was led by Jace Roossien (2-for-3) who hit a grand slam in the fifth inning and Ethan Angersbach (4-for-4) who had 4 RBI. Godwin also added 2 RBI at the plate and Jackson Wrenn had 1 RBI in the win.
Things got started early for Nahant after a walk by Roossien and an infield single by Christian Inello put men on with one out. An error at first base later in the inning would allow two runs to score followed by RBI singles from Angersbach and Wrenn that put Nahant up 4-0 in the first inning.
One inning later, Nahant added three more runs thanks to smart base running and errors by the Lynn Shore defense. Roossien and Inello both scored on passed balls while Casey DeCourt came in to score after an attempt to throw out a runner stealing second.
Nahant added another run in the fourth inning thanks to a RBI double from Angersbach that brought home Wrenn.
Craig Burton reached base in the fourth inning for Lynn Shore thanks to an error at second. Burton stole second and advanced on two passed balls to give Lynn Shore the only run of the game, making the score 8-1.
Shore pitcher Gio Batista came in for relief in the third inning and slowed down Nahant’s offense for two innings. He struck out two batters and allowed no earned runs in his first two innings of work but ran into trouble in the fifth.
Nahant scored 10 runs on eight hits in the fifth to put the game out of hand. Roossien’s grand slam highlighted the inning, and Nahant also got a 2-run double from Godwin and an RBI-single from Angersbach.
Roossien came in to close things down for Nahant, striking out three of the four batters he faced.
The loss eliminated Shore, which lost to Peabody Western earlier in the tournament.
“Nahant played well. They were hitting the ball all over the place their pitchers were really good,” Shore manager Mark Sullivan said.
“At the end of the day they’re young kids,” Sullivan added. “We had a little bit of an injury problem. I think we tried to provide fun and we just missed the hard work.”
