LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield baseball team managed to put it all together Saturday afternoon at Lynnfield High School, scoring early and riding a strong pitching performance to a 7-0 win over Belmont in a non-league bout.
“It was a solid day for us out there,” said Lynnfield coach John O’Brien. “We hit the ball well, didn’t leave guys on base, got a stellar pitching performance and didn’t make any errors out in the field. We’re starting to round into shape.”
David Tracy had a triple and two RBI in the victory for Lynnfield, while Nick Razzaboni added a double and two RBI. Alex Gentile and Dan Dorman each notched one RBI to help in the win.
“The guys hit the ball well and we cashed in on our opportunities, which is something we haven’t done as much as we would have liked this year,” said O’Brien. “The one thing we’ve really needed this year is run support for our pitching, and we finally got that.”
That run support went to help pitcher Ben Mullin earn the win on the mound. Mullin tossed a complete game shutout for the Pioneers, allowing just four hits with no walks and six strikeouts.
“Ben has been pitching great for us all year, he just hasn’t gotten the run support he’s deserved most of the time,” said O’Brien. “The big thing for him (Saturday) was that he didn’t allow any walks, and not giving up free bases is something we always try to emphasize.”
The Pioneers came out swinging to start this one, moving a pair of runners into scoring position in the bottom of the first. That set things up for Tracy, who ripped a two-run single to put Lynnfield ahead by a pair of runs.
Gentile added an RBI on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the second, then a run on an error pushed the lead to 4-0 after four innings.
The Pioneers were able to round out their scoring in the bottom of the fifth, when Razzaboni smashed an RBI double and then Dorman came through with an RBI single of his own to make it a 7-0 game.
Mullin did the rest from there, cruising through the final two innings to give the Pioneers the convincing shutout win.
Lynnfield (4-8) travels to Rockport Tuesday evening (6:30) — its first game under the lights all season.
“It’s definitely going to be a bit of an adjustment because we haven’t played under the lights all year, so it’ll be different,” said O’Brien. “Not only that, but Rockport is always a scrappy team and we always play close games against them every year. Add in the long trip just to get up there, and we’re going to have to be ready to play. Hopefully we can build off of this momentum and keep things rolling.”
