PEABODY — The Swampscott golf team capped a successful 2018 regular season with a win Wednesday afternoon, taking down Northeastern Conference foe Peabody, 49-23, at The Meadow at Peabody. The Big Blue swept their matches.
“We played well out there today from top to bottom,” said Swampscott coach Jason Knowles. “It was nice to end the regular season with a win and with our guys playing solid golf.”
Swampscott got wins from Ryan Graciale (5 1/2-3 1/2), Max Pegnato (5-4), Aidan Graciale (5 1/2-3 1/2), Lou Spellios (8-1), Danny Dilisio (7 1/2-1 1/2), Tate Greenfield (5 1/2-3 1/2) and Aidan Tierney (7 1/2-1 1/2). Jake Goldman halved his match, 4 1/2-4 1/2.
For Peabody, Ryan Fera, Connor McCarron, Brendan Mills and Alex Rice played well in the loss.
“We have a young team, and we’ve been improving throughout the year,” said Peabody coach Peter Cronan. “Even though the wins haven’t been there, we play well in every match. Hopefully our young guys can take what they’ve seen this season and use it to better themselves for the coming years.”
One of the most interesting moments of the match didn’t have to do with the play on the course, but the weather. About halfway through the match, a batch of intense rain and high winds appeared seemingly out of nowhere, catching everyone off guard despite only lasting for 15 minutes.
“It was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen on a golf course, there were umbrellas folding everywhere,” Knowles said. “The guys didn’t really prepare for it, and I was honestly very close to pulling them off the course. But they all said they wanted to finish, and before long they were able to.”
Cronan shared a similar take.
“It was definitely unexpected,” Cronan said of the weather. “But the guys pushed right through it and finished the match. The conditions changed pretty quickly out there, but I thought everyone adjusted well.”
The small weather delay meant that one group was left out on the course as darkness set in, but the two teams agreed to half the game to complete the match.
Peabody (3-11) closes out its season Wednesday against Beverly back at The Meadow. Cronan said he’d like to see his team end the year with a solid win.
“It would be great to close out the year with some momentum,” Cronan said. “But to do that we’ll need to chip and putt better. We can hit with most of the teams in the league, but when it gets to around the greens we struggle. So if we can clean that up, we should have a shot.”
For Swampscott (12-4-1), all eyes are now focused on the upcoming state tournament, which begins Monday at Far Corner Golf Club in Boxford.
“We played a practice round (at Far Corner) as a team last week, and we’re going to try to get out there one more time this weekend to give the guys another look. Ryan and Jake both played Far Corner last year so they have some familiarity, and Max has been playing well so we feel good about him. We need to have four guys go out there and play well Monday, and with the way we’ve been playing this year I feel pretty good about our chances.”
