LYNN — The Lynn 15-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars needed a win over undefeated Medford Wednesday evening to keep their state tournament run alive. Medford had other plans.
The Lynners plated the game’s first run but it was all Medford from there in a 14-3 Lynn loss at Breed Middle School. With the defeat, Lynn’s run in the state tournament came to a close.
“This group, as a core unit, nine or 10 of them have been all-stars for the last two years,” Lynn manager Dave Galeazzi said. “We’ve had some good runs the last two years. We were one run away from the state finals the last two years. We just didn’t have it tonight. Give credit to Medford, they put the bat on the ball and we just couldn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
After a scoreless inning and a half, the Lynners found the board in the bottom of the second. Sean Anderson (1-for-2) started the rally with a two-out double. Mark Tobin (1-for-1, RBI) followed with a walk and Andrew Luciano (1-for-3, RBI) drove home the game’s first run with a RBI double, scoring Anderson for the 1-0 Lynn lead.
Medford answered quickly in the top of the third. Matt Mitchell hit a one-out single and scored Medford’s first run of the evening on Aidan Barry’s RBI single.
Lynn ran into trouble in the top of the fourth when starting pitcher Luke Mannion surrendered back-to-back walks to start the frame. Jared McDonald, who drew the first free pass, raced home on a passed ball. Shane Taddia, who drew the second walk, scored on Jared McDonald’s sac-fly. Medford led 3-1 after three and a half innings.
The Lynners threatened in the bottom half of the fourth when Lucas Fritz earned a walk and Aidan Dow (1-for-2) followed with a single. But Medford ended the threat with a 6-4-3 double-play and a flyout to centerfield, keeping its 3-1 lead.
“We had runners on second and third and we were putting the bat on the ball,” Galeazzi said. “We just couldn’t get that one extra hit. They turned that one killer double-play there in the fourth inning.”
Medford added four runs to its advantage in the fifth. Back-to-back fielder’s choice groundouts with the bases loaded gave Medford a 5-1 lead. A wild pitch, followed by a balk, allowed Medford to push across two more runs for a 7-1 lead.
“It was a great game for the first four innings,” Galeazzi said. “We got that early lead. A couple calls didn’t go our way early. That didn’t make much of a difference but in the fifth inning the wheels fell off. (We committed) two errors, a ball, a couple mental mistakes on their (suicide) squeeze plays. Even though they scored the runs our middle infield didn’t rotate. That’s all stuff we’ve been over. We just fell asleep in the fifth inning.
“Luke (Mannion) deserved a better fate,” Galeazzi added. “I don’t think they hit the ball out of the infield in that fifth inning.”
Down by six runs with three turns at the plate remaining, the Lynners had their work cut out for themselves in the late stages. Jackson Nickolau (1-for-3) singled to lead the bottom of the fifth but Lynn couldn’t make anything of it.
Medford scored five runs in the sixth inning and tallied two more in the seventh to put the game out of reach. A RBI groundout from Ray Contreras (0-for-1, RBI) and Tobin’s RBI double in the bottom of the sixth capped Lynn’s scoring for the 14-3 final.
“I was happy we battled back in the sixth,” Galeazzi said. “We were able to get it back under the 10-run rule. We didn’t want it to end on a 10-run slaughter so we were able to finish in seven innings.”
