The Lynnfield baseball team picked up a big league win Saturday, defeating host Ipswich 9-3 at Mile Lane Field. Lynnfield improved to 6-4 on the season.
Junior Clayton Marengi pitched five strong innings to pick up the win. He allowed one unearned run on four hits, four strikeouts and three walks. Sophomore Luke Martinho led the offense, going 3-for-3 with three stolen bases.
“We got five good innings from Clay today and the kids swung the bats well,” said Pioneers coach John O’Brien. “With his low pitch count, Clay will be available during the week, which is good for us because we have some tough games coming up.
“Luke did very well and has made the most of his opportunities, as did the other sophomore, Trent Balian.”
Lynnfield got on the board in the top of the second when Matt Fiore (1-for-2, run, stolen base) singled, stole second and came around to score on senior Will Garofoli’s single.
In the third, Jonathan Luders (2-for-3, two runs, two stolen bases) led off with a walk and stole second. Junior John Singer (2-for-4, two RBI, run) singled Luders home. Marengi (2-for-3, two runs) beat out a slow roller to push Singer to second. Fernando Gonzalez’s grounder to second was misplayed, allowing Singer to score to make it 3-0. Fiore bunted Gonzalez (1-for-3) and Marengi to second and third. Garofoli (2-for-4, two RBI, stolen base) reached on an error with Marengi scoring. Jaret Simpson (1-for-3) came up clutch with a 2-run double, plating Gonzalez and Garofoli. Martinho singled Simpson to third, then Balian brought Simpson home with a sacrifice fly to center to make it 6-0.
In the bottom of the inning an infield error and misplayed fly ball handed the Tigers an unearned run.
But Lynnfield got that run right back in the fourth when Marengi singled and scored on Garofoli’s 2-out single to left.
In the fifth, Luders singled, stole second and scored on Singer’s RBI single to make it 9-1.
With a 9-1 lead, O’Brien went to his bench in the sixth inning to close out the game.
“It was good to be able to get lots of kids time on the field and at the plate. They all want to play, but not everyone can,” O’Brien said. “They were disappointed the other day when we laid that stinker against Georgetown, but they responded today so that is encouraging.”
Junior Christian Maney relieved Marengi in the sixth, allowing one earned run on two hits. He had some help from his defense to get out of a jam in the sixth. After giving up a leadoff single, he stabbed a ground ball and fired to second for the out, then Luders rifled the ball to first baseman Cory Castinetti, who made a nice stretch to complete the 1-6-3 double play. Third baseman Liam Farrell ended the inning with a highlight-reel worthy backhanded stab of a hard line drive.
Ipswich rallied with two runs in the seventh, but it was too little, too late.
“We were leaving the ball over the plate, and they hit it,” said Ipswich coach Zack Lamkin. “Our defense didn’t help us out, but the biggest problem we had was we ran into a lot of outs. Being down so much, we needed to go station to station so now at 2-7, for us, it’s an uphill battle the rest of the season.”
Lynnfield hosts Manchester-Essex Tuesday (3:45).
BASEBALL
Malden Catholic 6, Fenwick 3
Trey Deloury (1-for-3) drove in two of Fenwick’s three runs. Keegan O’Connor (3-for-3) scored twice.
On the mound, starter Cory Bright went 1 2/3 innings and allowed one unearned run on one hit. Deloury pitched a scoreless inning of relief with two strikeouts.
St. John’s 8, Hamilton-Wenham 0
In the Pete Frates ALS Awareness Game, the Eagles scored four runs in the bottom of the first and put it out of reach with four more in the bottom of the sixth.
Zeke O’Connell drove in two runs. Alex Lane (2-for-3), Will Frain, Jake Miller, DJ Pacheco and Jack Cairns had one RBI apiece.
Eddie Hardiman picked up the win on the mound with three shutout innings.
