PEABODY — It was a rough game for the 15-year-old Babe Ruth team from Peabody. For the second time in as many weeks, the team ran into a buzzsaw in its Lynn counterparts.
Lynn came in hot, taking the lead early in the game and never slowing down en route to a 10-0 win in the final game of pool play in the District 1 tournament at Peabody High.
“Lynn is a good team. They got good catching and good managing going into the next round. They already secured the one-seed in the state. They’re a nice team,” said Peabody’s Coach Jarrod Hochman. “You can’t give up five outs an inning and expect to win at this level. After three innings we scored nothing but we had given them 15, 16 outs for nine and we only gave up four runs. So I felt really fortunate that they could have gotten away early and I give my guys a lot of credit.”
This outing was not the first time the two teams have seen each other. “We wanted to build on things that happened in the last game and we accomplished that,” said Hochman. “We put balls in play. We made them make plays. A few things got away from us. You know you can’t give up.”
“We had played them a couple weeks ago. We’re pretty familiar with them overall. So, yeah we are just trying to take care of business,” said Lynn Coach Rich Avery.
There was one occurrence that you don’t see too often; a balk. “(Their pitcher) looked like he was a relatively new pitcher so we were trying to get on that. Trying to make him look at our runners and it worked,” said Avery.
“I was really proud of Dylan (Jurczyk) tonight. Dylan’s come a long way,” Hochman said. “So, apparently the balk was that Dylan separated his hands lightly and then went back into the glove. It was pretty slight and I wasn’t too crazy about the call but you know I’d never get on an umpire in a game in front of young adults but, you know, that’s not gonna happen. There’s a slight break in his hands and then put it back. Something that he’s done most of his pitching career and probably something that, you know, 98 out of 100 umpires wouldn’t call even in that situation. But it was a learning experience for him. Told him what it was and corrected what was wrong and we did alright.”
For Lynn, Seth Sullivan had a double that scored two runs, and Chris Marks also hit a two-bagger. Kyle Cummings had a triple for the victors.
The single-elimination crossover semifinals, in which the top two teams in each section within the division play each other, will begin next week. Lynn will be home.
