PEABODY — The Peabody Little League 12-year-old All-Stars shook off a pesky Winthrop team with a late-game offensive flurry to remain undefeated in the District 16 tournament, defeating the Vikings 7-1 Friday night at MacArthur Park.
Through the first three innings, the game was a tight 1-0 battle with Peabody on top. But Peabody got the bats going, scoring six runs over the final three innings, the big hit coming off the bat of pinch-hitter Jake Powers. His fourth-inning bloop double to right plated Jayce JeanPierre with the game-winning run.
“Yeah, that turned out to be a big hit as we had left a few guys on early,” said manager Justin Powers. “I felt like we were right on their guy early (Jay Fotiades), but he did a good job mixing in his offspeed stuff but we just happened to hit the ball right at people.
“We have a tough lineup. Once we got through it the first time or two, we finally broke through and it was good to see.”
Peabody starter Matt Smith carried a one-hitter into the bottom of the fifth inning and pitched a complete game. He struck out 11, including the side in the sixth, allowed just four hits (two of them infield) and did not walk a batter.
“We got a great first start from Matt and he was just awesome,” said Powers. “We tell them all the time to just throw strikes and let us catch the ball, and Matt did that and we made some great plays.”
Peabody jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when JeanPierre (1-for-1, run) worked a bases-loaded, two-out walk.
Defense and pitching ruled over the next two innings with both teams flashing the leather. In the second, Peabody third baseman Joey Smith (1-for-2, run, double) snuffed out a potential Winthrop rally with a great play on a perfectly-placed bunt by Will Murphy. In the third, Winthrop second baseman Phil Boncore robbed Noah Crocker (1-for-3, RBI, run) with a nifty backhand grab of a hard grounder.
Peabody broke though in the fourth. JeanPierre (1-for-2, run) led off and was hit by a pitch. Two batters later, Jake Powers came up clutch with a RBI double to make it 2-0 Peabody.
Jariel Tolentino (2-for-4, 3 runs, 2 doubles, RBI) led off the fifth with a double to left. Crocker followed with a walk. Matt Smith (2-for-4, double, 2 runs) doubled both home to make it a 4-0 Peabody lead.
Winthrop cut the deficit to 4-1 in its half of the inning on Boncore’s RBI double.
Peabody got that run back and more in the top of the sixth. Zach Hartnett reached on an error and advanced to third on Andrew McKenna’s double to deep right. Tolentino ripped a double to center to make it 6-1, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Crocker’s ground out to short.
Powers said defense was key to the win.
“Sometimes you get into that habit when a kid is throwing that well like Matt did, of falling asleep out there, but the kids played well defensively,” Powers said.
Peabody has the luxury of a long layoff before its next game Friday, July 5 against Salem.
“We got a little bit of a break until then so we gave the kids the day off (Saturday) and hopefully they can get a little swimming in,” said Powers.
