LYNN — The Lynn Babe Ruth 13-year-old All-Stars did just enough to squeak out a win Friday, topping visiting Marblehead 4-1 in a preliminary round opener at Fraser Field.
There wasn’t much offense for either team, with only a total of five hits on the night. A lot of that had to do with JJ Avery and Jake Peterson on the mound for Lynn.
Peterson shined while pitching the final three shutout innings, striking out four with one walk. Avery started the game and threw four innings, allowing just two hits and one run with five strikeouts, but struggled a bit at times with four walks and two hit batters.
“Those two boys are a nice one-two combo,” Lynn coach John Peterson said. “We call them 1A and 1B. They go back and forth. They are great pitchers. They have a little bit of a different style: JJ’s curveball is a little more looping slow and Jake’s is more of a hard-breaking ball. When teams go from JJ to Jake it’s tough for them.”
At the plate, Lynn scraped together as much as they could. Devin Duval and Nate Cutone each had one hit and one RBI. Jimmy Jennings also laced a single and scored a run. Jake Peterson added two runs scored and Gilbert Galva had an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Anthony Sanderson scored one run.
But on a day where the offense struggled, the defense was perfect. Catcher Kyle Doney stood out, throwing out two runs on the basepath.
“The defense was definitely there,” John Peterson said. “You can tell there are a few little jitters early. I think that was the issue with the bats; this team is loaded with bats. You’re going to see us put up runs at some point. Just the first game jitters, cold weather and a big stadium. But I’m confident they’ll get going.”
Marblehead couldn’t have asked for a better start from pitcher Julius Galante, who threw five innings, allowing one earned run on two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts.
Marblehead’s lone run came off an RBI-infield single from Colin Burke that plated Galante.
“(Galante) looked good and had a great start for us,” Marblehead coach Chris Wyman said. “I thought things went really well from that perspective. A couple of plays in one direction or another and the game is different. We played a team that has traveled and been together for a while. They’ve had a lot of success so our guys I thought played well.”
Avery pitched himself out of trouble on multiple occasions Friday in that started in the second inning. Three straight walks loaded the bases for Marblehead but Avery buckled down with a pair of strikeouts and a forced fly ball to get out of the jam.
In the third, Jennings singled and stole second and third base — Lynn had nine stolen bases total — and Duval drove him in with a single of his own to put Lynn ahead 1-0.
A pair of hit batters and a walk loaded the bases again for Marblehead in the fourth and this time Avery couldn’t get out of it on his own with Burkes’ RBI single tying the game at 1-1.
But a trio of Marblehead errors put Lynn back on top in the next half inning with Jake Peterson scoring on an errant throw.
Lynn added some key insurance runs in the sixth thanks to Galva’s sacrifice fly and Cutone’s one-run double, and Peterson closed out the game on the mound.
Lynn (1-0) will host Danvers Monday back at Fraser Field (TBD).
Marblehead also plays Danvers on the road Tuesday (TBD).
