PEABODY — Monday was a night for revenge, as far as the Swampscott All-Star Little League team was concerned.
Swampscott was back at Lt. Ross Park taking on Peabody. However this time Swampscott took the 7-4 win knocking Peabody out of the tournament.
“We took advantage of their throwing the ball all over the place. Defensively our guys held it together really well today. Defense gave up those two big home runs but, defensively we didn’t make a mistake,” said Swampscott’s Coach Jeremy Kucuba. “Our boys went and took it, with some little help from us and some bad throws didn’t hurt.”
The game started like the previous one, with Peabody hopping out in front after a home run in the first, courtesy of Mike Harris. This brought in Patrick Prideaux who was already on second when Harris came up to bat. It was like deja vu as the third inning came around. Prideaux was able to get to first which brought up Harris. Harris continued on his roll by hitting another home run over the center field fence and into the woods behind.
“Those two are good hitters those two. Patrick (Prideaux) and Michael (Harris) those two, those guys can flat out play baseball. That’s two of the best ball players in the district,” said Kucuba. “ We’ve got a few that I think are in that category but I’ve got 13 of them and I care a whole lot about them.”
However, the fifth inning was when everything changed. It was like a switch had been flipped for Swampscott, as the team had 11 at-bats for seven runs.
“They just waited and waited, then they saw their opportunity and exploded,” said Peabody Manager Rick DeLoreto. “I give them all the credit. They have been playing a lot of baseball right now and they could have very much turtled and gave up after two homeruns like that.”
Both Beau Olivieri and Jack Pavey made some outstanding defensive plays during the game. Olivieri made a spectacular grab out in center field, ending the first inning. Followed by Pavey making a diving catch in the dirt look easy at the start of the bottom of the second.
Both Teddy O’Neill and Luc Tatdif hit doubles in the fifth to bring in their teammates while O’Neill kept Peabody swinging for the fences to secure the 7-4 win. “We wanted to try something different. Go one time through the lineup, with a different arm and then let Teddy (O’Neill) finish it,” said Kucuba. “He came in and did exactly that, he finished it. Kept them scoreless through those key innings and gave us a chance to comeback and get some runs, such an amazing job.”
