SALEM – East Lynn Little league battled it out with Winthrop in a do-or-die game at Forest River Park, ending up with a 7-4 win Wednesday evening.
The victory keeps the East Lynners alive in the District 16 tournament while the loss eliminates Winthrop.
“We had someone who has never pitched for us yet. But, we knew he could pitch,” said East Lynn’s manager Paul Hartford. “First inning we let him down defensively but he took it upon himself to do what he had to do and made it to the sixth inning.”
“It felt good and everything. I kinda liked it,” said pitcher Abiel Hernandez. “This is my first day pitching in All-Stars. I think I did pretty good and my teammate A.J. (Velazquez) he did good too. He finished it off and won the game for us.Felt good to win.”
Winthrop came out swinging immediately, taking the lead in the first. Jimmy Delaney started off for Winthrop with a walk and then stole second. Carmen DiPrisco hit a single, sending Delaney to third and leaving him to steal second. Luke Griffin sent both Delaney and Diprisco home with his single. Griffin proceeded to steal second, third, and home, giving Winthrop a three run lead.
“They battled, so it’s nice to come up with a win after our loss last game,” said Hartford. “ We had a couple of practices after our loss and the practice after our loss was the best practice we had the entire time.”
East Lynn’s Jhorwan Vasquez and Shawnie Coleman got things going for the victors. Vasquez walked and like everyone else so far in the game stole second. Coleman hit a double bringing in Vasquez before returning the favor by stealing third and home bringing East Lynn back in the game making it 2-3 at the end of the first.
“They realized that we have to come a certain way to play. They didn’t do that when we lost and you know, hopefully they learned from it because it showed today. Even though we didn’t play great we hung in there,” said Hartford. “ We didn’t fall, we fell behind last game and the game fell apart. We fell behind this game and they battled.
East Lynn managed to hold Winthrop to three runs for the next two innings while Anthony Guerrero and Micah Torros scored two more runs for the team. With East Lynn now leading 4-3 Winthrop’s pitcher Braedon Lounsbury didn’t like that so after his walk and advancement to second then proceeded to steal third and home as others did before him tying the game at 4-4.
Yet, East Lynn was not done, scoring another two runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 6-4. However, the fun had only just started in the bottom of the fifth with East Lynn’s Hernandez scoring, adding yet another run to his team’s lead. Then, Winthrop head coach Paul Pellecchia got tossed after arguing with the umpire over a called dropped fly ball.
“I had a feeling that we were going to win. Some people were feeling down but we brought it back up,” said Hernandez.
East Lynn’s next appearance will be Friday to take on Lynnfield at Pine Hill’s Spagnoli Field.
