SWAMPSCOTT — In a matchup between two young teams in Swampscott and Peabody, it was going to come down to which team could play a complete baseball game. On Friday, it was the Tanners, who walked out of Swampscott with a 5-2 victory.
“Honestly, this was a breath of fresh air,” Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt said. “We’ve been struggling offensively [and] our defense today was impeccable.”
Mike Petro took the mound for the Tanners, going all seven innings while recording three strikeouts.
“He competed for seven innings. He told me, ‘Coach, don’t warm anyone up. I’m feeling good. I want this game,’” Bettencourt said. “He was excited to be out there [and] led the way for us.”
For the Big Blue, Nick Berube threw four strikeouts across six innings.
With his team trailing 1-0 early – and two guys on with two outs – Sam Nadworny made contact and drove in both runners to give Swampscott a 2-1 lead.
“We didn’t have a ton of hits today, but Sam is a really good hitter,” Swampscott coach Joe Caponigro said.
The one-run cushion wasn’t enough to hold off the feisty Tanners. Cam Connolly, with two strikes, two outs, and runners in scoring position, showed his mental fortitude to drive in a run (3-2 Peabody).
“We were talking about cutting down our strikeouts and putting the ball in play. Cam pokes one down the left-field line and we get a run home with two outs, and that’s what we need to do more of,” Bettencourt said.
Once the Tanners regained the lead, they didn’t let it go, tacking on two more runs. One came in the sixth inning when Ryan Brunet executed a perfect squeeze bunt to bring home Noah Crocker from third.
“We’re not a home run-hitting team, so, therefore, we need to string things together to give ourselves as many opportunities as we can. On-base percentage is a huge part of what we need to do,” Bettencourt said.
Despite the loss, Caponigro credits his team for how hard it’s working.
“We just can’t put a complete game together. We didn’t get anything going offensively,” Caponigro said. “The kids are trying their hardest and working hard. We just need to put together a complete game. It’ll come, though. These kids continue to grind every day.”
Bettencourt believes this type of game will bring his group confidence moving forward.
“We played a good brand of baseball. Now, we have a little bit of confidence,” Bettencourt said. “We have been on a bit of a slide lately. We needed a game like this to get our confidence back.”
RBI (Peabody)
Noah Crocker (2)
Cam Connolly (2)
Ryan Brunet (1)
RBI (Swampscott)
Sam Nadworny (2)