PEABODY — Peabody West had its ace on the mound and now has a win in the books.
The West kids took their first game in the Massachusetts state sectional round Wednesday at Wyoma’s Reinfuss Field, winning 6-0 over Andover.
“We needed to stick to the plan. Their pitcher threw hard and he was making good pitches,” said Peabody West Manager Steve Lomasney. “I think that later in the game, we got to him, you know? Obviously he got the pitch count a little early. They’re trying to preserve their best arm for later in the tournament.
“So, we were able to get to their secondary guys,” Lomasney said. “But, there were a lot of foul balls that we needed to put in play. We made the adjustments later on and we were putting those balls in play. You pressure the defense and you find holes and score runs.”
Peabody West came out of the gate struggling to make contact with the ball. However the team took the lead early in the first with Andrew Wenzel stealing home on a pitch that got away from the Andover catcher.
Andover managed to get one on in the bottom of the first but Peabody West held on to its one-run lead heading into the second. Tyler McMahon and Ryan Skerry were left stranded as Peabody couldn’t seem to get their bats going. Ricky Williams and Landon Lohnes made a pair of catches at first and right field to keep Andover at bat in the bottom of the second. Keeping their lead of 1-0.
“It’s a credit to those boys because the plays we made defensively and the outs that we got with runners in scoring position. These pitchers made bug strikeouts, pitching for contact early,” said Lomasney. “They did everything we asked them to do and it was a great performance all around.”
Peabody West went 1-2-3 in the top of the third. While Andover got the bases loaded with their first three at bats only to leave them on with the final out being a force play at third. Ty Lomasney seemed to wake up in the top of the fourth sending in McMahon and Skerry on his single and proceeded to steal second after striking out in the first and second. His hit brought Peabody West to a 3-0 lead. Williams not only made a catch out in right but an over the shoulder catch to put up a second out in the bottom of the fourth.
“We’ve worked really hard defensively and they were a very good defensive team. They bought in to go and get the ball,” said Lomasney. “He (Rickey Williams) is just a great athlete. We got a lot of really good athletes that are making plays when we need them to. They’re ready all the time and that’s so important.”
Andover managed to hold Peabody West, robbing Lohnes of what should have been a double. Peabody West really showed up in the top of the sixth, with Skerry and Patrick Woods scoring and Brayden Beals stealing home on a wild pitch. Andover tried to come back in the bottom of the sixth only to leave two stranded leading to Peabody’s victory of 6-0.
“You get to this point they’re all good. You know you got to keep their lead hitter off base. You gotta get around their three hole hitter, four hole hitter without them hitting bombs and if you could do that then you got a chance,” said Lomasney.
