DANVERS — Heading into Thursday night the Peabody Champions had their backs against the wall down 2-1 to the Kingston Night Owls in the North Shore Baseball League final. But thanks to a great performance from starting pitcher Tyler Leavitt, the Champions came away with a 3-2 win in Game 4 at Twi Field to even the series.
“It was unbelievable,” Peabody manager Steve Gridley said of Leavitt’s performance. “We desperately needed it (Thursday) but he has been like that for the last two years. When we’ve needed games he’s been the guy. He was very excited for this start and we had all the confidence in the world that we could tie this series with him on the mound.”
Leavitt pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing just two runs on six hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. The Champions struggled at the plate the past two games but David Ruggiero (2-for-3, run, RBI) helped spark the offense with a pair of key doubles.
“(Leavitt) ended up with just one walk and that’s key,” Gridley said. “I’ll take that every day of the week. It was a great performance. Ruggiero hit the ball very well (Thursday). I’m really happy with the way we scrapped for this win.”
Kingston jumped out to an early lead in this one. Andrew Thibault laced a single to start the first inning and Nick Comei plated him with a triple to put the Night Owls ahead 1-0.
Peabody’s offense got rolling right away in the bottom half of the first. Ruggiero laced a double from the leadoff spot. A walk and a single loaded the bases. Zack Keenan plated Ruggiero on a sacrifice fly tie to the game at 1-1.
Ruggiero came through again in the second. Robbie Sarmanian reached on a single and after a fielder’s choice, Andrew O’Neill stole second base to get in scoring position. Ruggiero laced his second double of the night to plate O’Neill and put the Champions ahead 2-1.
But Kingston answered right back with a 2-out rally in the third. Joe Morin doubled and Comei plated him with a single to get things back even at 2-2.
The Champions pushed across the eventual winning run in the sixth inning thanks to some Kingston mistakes. An error and a passed ball helped Jon Cahill move to third base. BJ Weed plated Cahill with a sacrifice fly to give Peabody a 3-2 lead.
“It was nice to come out and get some runs early but we still only got four hits,” Gridley said. “We have to take advantage of walks and errors. That’s what we did. There were some breaks like that one, where against a team like this, if they give you it you have to take advantage. We did there.”
Peabody didn’t make things easy in the seventh. After two quick outs Leavitt ran into some trouble, allowing a hit and a walk. Scott Weismann came in for the final batter and forced a high fly ball that Cahill made a diving catch on at third base to seal the victory.
“Jon with that play, we’ve lost two finals on pop flys to short left field,” Gridley said. “I saw that happen and my stomach dropped. It went higher than most fly balls. I’m just glad he made the play.”
With the series tied at 2-2,the NSBL final turns into a best-of-three series with Game 5 at Haverhill Stadium Friday night (8).
