PEABODY — The Marblehead baseball team jumped ahead with four runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back Friday afternoon, rolling to a 9-0 win over Peabody in a Northeastern Conference battle at Donohue Field.
The Magicians have now won eight of their last nine games after starting the year at 1-5, and this latest win puts Marblehead one victory away from a guaranteed state tournament berth.
While the offense may have put up nine runs, the star of the day for Marblehead was starting pitcher Ian Maude. The junior righty earned his sixth win of the season after he tossed a complete-game shutout, allowing just six hits while striking out six.
On the offensive side for the Magicians, Schuyler Schmitt went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI, while James Doody went 2-for-3 with two RBI and Shane Keough went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Liam McIlroy (0-for-2) and Craig Michalowski (0-for-2) each added one RBI in the winning effort.
The story is a different one for Peabody, which started the year at 5-1 but has struggled in recent weeks. The Tanners made six errors in the field in Friday’s loss and were only able to scatter six hits as a team. Their best chance to score came with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third, but the Tanners left the bags full.
Jacob Palhares and Giovanni Guglielmo each went 2-for-3 in the loss for Peabody, while Joe Raymond (1-for-3) and Daniel Espinosa (1-for-1) also had hits.
Raymond took the loss on the mound after allowing four runs on one hit in less than an inning of work, while Branden Waite went 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on six hits with five strikeouts. Mike Petro pitched one inning of relief and struck out one batter.
The Magicians jumped out early in this one, as they drew back-to-back walks to start the first inning before getting a two-run single from Keough to get on the board. James Doody added an RBI single two batters later, then a sacrifice fly from Michalowski made it a 4-0 game.
The Magicians added insurance runs on an RBI single from Doody (third inning) and a two-run double from Schmitt (sixth inning), while the other two Marblehead runs came on a Peabody error in the fifth.
Peabody (8-9) travels to Masconomet Tuesday (4).
Marblehead (9-6) plays on the road at Beverly Saturday afternoon (12).
