ANDOVER — Despite jumping out to a five-run lead early, the Peabody West 12-year-old All-Stars fell to Woburn 9-8 in extra innings in the District 4 Tournament at Deyermond Park in Andover Thursday afternoon.
“It always hurts to lose but the kids keep coming back,” Peabody West manager Steve Porcella said. “It’s a good sign that they never give up. You can never count this team out.
“Baseball is a game of plays, you have to make the little plays,” Porcella added. “We made a lot of little plays today but Woburn made a few more and that’s what it came down to.”
West was led at the plate by Josh Scali (2-for-4 with 4 RBI) who had two clutch doubles, both with the bases loaded after the batter before him, Nick Villano, was intentionally walked. Jayce Dooley (2-for-4 with 1 RBI) and Thomas Fabbo (1-for-3 with a walk, HBP, RBI) each added solo home runs for West.
In the bottom of the first West got on the board early when Dooley hit a solo home run to left-center for a 1-0 lead.
West added to its lead in the second inning. A leadoff single by Andy Bousquet, an infield error by Woburn and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out in the inning. Another error on a fly ball to center hit by Dooley scored two runs and put West up 3-0. After Villano was intentionally walked, Scali hit a ground-rule double to extend the lead to 5-0.
Woburn chipped away at the lead in the fourth thanks to a solo home run from John Doherty and a RBI single from Hayden Laprade, making it a three-run game at 5-2.
In the bottom half of the fourth, Fabbo added a solo home run to give West a 6-2 lead.
An infield error by West and a double from Woburn’s Jeremy Barreto put runners on base to start the fifth inning. Woburn added a run on a RBI hit from Tre Dowd and another on a failed attempt to throw a runner out stealing to make the score 6-4. Another single off the bat Dylan Sigsbury made it a one-run game at 6-5.
While Woburn cut down the lead the West bats went silent, recording just two hits throughout the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Woburn added two more runs in the sixth when five batters reached base in a row, four on singles and one on a walk. Sigsbury added a sacrifice fly later in the inning to put Woburn up 8-6.
Down to its final out with no runners on base, West wasn’t ready for the game to end. A walk by Fabbo, single by Dooley and an intentional walk on Villano again loaded the bases for Scali who laced another double to tie the game at 8-8.
After two walks to start the seventh, Woburn plated the eventual winning run on a passed ball to score Laprade and take a 9-8 lead.
West had no more rally left in its half of the seventh, dropping its first game of the season.
West plays Billerica at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Deyermond Park.
“No doubt we can rebound from this,” Porcella said. “We’ll be back ready tomorrow.”
