PEABODY — Everything fell into place perfectly for the Peabody 12-year-old All-Stars in the District 16 tournament.
Peabody cruised through its competition with five straight wins, including a 13-8 victory over Saugus National in the finals to earn the District 16 crown. But now manager Justin Powers and his team are ready to shift their focus to the Section 4 Tournament.
“We know going in were facing the best of the best in each district so that’s a challenge,” Powers said. “The kids are looking forward to it. It’s what it’s all about. At the end of the day we can only really worry about ourselves and how we play. I like our group and I think if we play like we know we can we’ll be fine.”
This team is no stranger to success. Last season as 11-year-olds, Peabody won district and sectional titles and a bulk of the players from that roster have returned this year. It’s that familiarity that helps put Peabody over the top Powers said.
“We have 11 of our 13 kids from last year,” Powers said. “It helps a little bit to have the continuity and know the kids.
“I think that’s one of our bigger factors,” Powers said. “They all know each other and everyone supports each other. The play-time rules are one at bat each and whether a player is getting one at bat and that’s it or five and playing the whole game they always support each other. This is a real unselfish team and it helps.”
Even the newcomers, Jariel Tolentino and Jayce Jeanpierre, haven’t just fit in but have become some of the bigger threats in Peabody’s deep lineup.
“We’re pretty balanced at the plate,” Powers said. “Jariel leads the team in RBI so far and Jayce has three home runs. Noah Crocker is another big bat, he had a terrific district tournament. We’ve got guys coming off the bench that are capable too. The benefit of that is our guys off the bench went 10-for-30 in districts so that’s pretty helpful.”
Another benefit of the district tournament success is that Peabody got to limit it’s pitching to just four arms, but with competition increasing in the sectionals Powers will need everyone ready to go.
“We’ve benefitted from the rest between games and have only thrown Matt Smith, James Smith, Noah Crocker and Jariel Tolentino in districts,” Powers said. “But anything can change. We’re hoping for Joey Smith and Andrew Mckenna to step up. But a lot of these guys threw in the regular season. You never know what can happen so we want everyone to be ready.
“Instead of a bracket the sectional gets into pool play so it’s a little different with pitch counts,” Powers said. “It’s all about managing what days kids can be available. It’s helpful knowing the kids but the games can change on a dime.”
After a handful of practices earlier this week, a rain delay Wednesday gave Peabody an extra day of rest before they get into pool play Thursday (7) against North Andover in Andover.
“After winning the district final (last Thursday) we gave them a couple days off and then we’ve been right back at it,” Powers said. “We’ve been knocking the rust off and working on situational stuff this week. We’re ready to go.”
Powers isn’t too familiar with North Andover but Peabody is expecting a tough test right out of the gate.
“I do know that this is the first year (North Andover) has been combined after having two Little League teams,” Powers said. “I don’t know a ton about that team but just going on history they’re always a good hitting team.
“We really look forward to the challenge,” Powers said. “Looking at Section 4 as a whole, worst case scenario if we do get knocked out it won’t be for a lack of effort. These kids are always working hard.”