QUINCY — Lynn Babe Ruth’s 15-year-olds fought back from heartbreak as 14s to win the state championship over Parkway (West Roxbury) 5-2 at Adams Field Saturday.
Last year as 14s, this group suffered an extra innings loss in the state finals to Maplewood and exercised those demons over the weekend.
“They worked hard all winter and through the high school seasons to get back to this point. This is why they all came back this year; they wanted to be here in this game, and since we started a month ago, it is all that we talked about getting back to this point and finally getting over the hump,” said Manager Leon Elwell.
As the game began, anyone with a pulse could tell Lynn was ready to seize the moment and win a title, as its bench was loud and full of energy whether they were in the field or up to the plate.
Seizing the moment is precisely what they did on the backs of some great pitching, timely offense, and heady base running.
Josh Doney, who has been lights out for Lynn, got the start and did his job on a limited pitch count, keeping Parkway scoreless through two innings and striking out three in the process.
Then in the bottom of the second, Lynn took a lead that they would never surrender from an RBI single to left field by Shea Newhall to make it 1-0.
“Shea Newhall had the big hit early in the game … he really has not been playing that much, but he had that big hit early, and it let us breathe a little bit,” said Elwell.
After Doney exited the game, Jared Paone came up huge for Lynn in his middle innings relief appearance with three scoreless inning that let Lynn pull away.
In the bottom of the fifth, singles from Jaiden Driscoll and Seth Sullivan, followed by a Levi Da Silva walk, loaded the bases. One passed ball allowed Driscoll to score, making it 2-0 Lynn. Then another passed ball scored Sullivan, and with some heads-up base running, Da Silva also scored to take a 4-0 lead.
Da Silva’s great play did not stop there as he took over for Paone on the mound and ended up closing out the game for Lynn. In the top of the sixth, Da Silva got into a bit of a jam surrendering an RBI double to Parkway’s Liam Russell, bringing the score to 4-1.
However, Da Silva hunkered down, coming up clutch with the tying run on deck, striking out John Holland to get out of the jam.
After Lynn got an insurance run in the sixth to make the game 5-1, Da Silva found himself in the same situation with Parkway cutting the lead to three. He responded again with the tying run on deck and forced John Hoenscheid to ground out, clinching a state title with a 5-2 win.
“It went according to plan today. That is exactly what we wanted. We wanted to get 40 out of Josh. Jared, hopefully, eat up the middle innings for us and go to Levi late and that is exactly what happened,” said Elwell. “I am proud of those three guys, and I am proud of all these guys. They worked really hard, and they deserve to be the state champions.”
Jeff Earp, Lynn Babe Ruth’s president, said the newly minted state champs have a “legitimate shot to go to the World Series. “
“We are so proud of this group and of our program,” he said.
Now the state champs have their eyes set on regionals in Keene, New Hampshire, later this week.
The focus for the team is simple.
“Pitching and defense, that is the plan, that is what wins; pitching and defense. We will be rested, we got a week to rest up and fine-tune some things, and we will be ready to go for Friday,” Elwell said.
