LYNN — The Lynn Babe Ruth 15-year-old All-Stars started Tuesday night’s state quarterfinal game at Breed Middle School’s Clancy Field against Taunton as if it was going to be a walk in the park.
Literally.
Taunton pitchers issued 11 bases on balls, and hit four batters. The net result of all that wildness on the part of Taunton was six runs for Lynn.
But once the game reached that point, it turned on a dime and got quite dicey before Lynn scored runs in the fifth and sixth innings to win, 8-4, and advance to the state semifinals, at home, against an opponent that is still to be determined.
Lynn led 6-0 after three innings, with only one of those runs — Jayden Driscoll’s base hit in the second scoring Gilly Galva, who had doubled — coming without some kind of assistance from a base on balls.
Then, Taunton got to work. Kyle Walden triple scored Jarred Spencer for one run, and then Spencer’s three-run double an inning later made it 6-4. An obviously agitated group of Lynn players huddled up between innings.
“It was a couple of bad plays — a couple of bad bounces,” said Coach Rich Avery. “We just wanted them to refocus and get their heads back in the game, that’s all.”
And that’s exactly what Lynn did. Galva led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a triple, and while he stayed at third on Driscoll’s fly ball to left — on which left fielder Cam Cruz made a spectacular diving catch — he scored when catcher Ryan Crowley couldn’t handle a throw from the throw on an attempt to nail Galva on a ground ball.
Lynn put the final nail in Taunton’s coffin in the sixth. Jarred Paone was hit by a pitch for the third time in the game. Mike Marks, pinch-running, stole second, went to third on an error, and scored the same way.
“I like the way we buckled down,” said Avery. “We got those two runs and put the game away.”
Josh Doney went four innings for Lynn, giving up three hits, two walks and a run. Paone pitched the fifth and sixth, and while he got into trouble in the fifth, giving up the three runs, he also got out of trouble by striking out Walden with a runner in scoring position.
Levi DaSilva pitched a scoreless seventh inning to close things out.
“We kind of had a plan to do it that way,” Avery said. “It isn’t often that those plans actually work out, but this one did.”
