LYNN— There was no denying the Peabody West 12-year-old Little League All-Star team Saturday. West’s offense was on fire, needing only three innings to mercy rule host Winthrop 15-0 at Pine Hill’s Spagnoli Field in the second round of the District 16 Little League tournament.
West set the tone early with a seven-run first inning, then poured it on in the third with eight more runs to put the game out of reach.
Starting pitcher Ben Ouellette was dominant. He allowed just one hit, struck out seven and didn’t walk a batter. He wasn’t too shabby at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double, two RBI and one run scored.
Center fielder Landon Pelletier and right fielder Joe Ryan also had multiple-hit games. Pelletier was 2-for-2 with one RBI and a run scored. Ryan was 2-for-2 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI.
Manager Keith Slattery said lopsided games are tough to take no matter which end of the score you’re on.
“Sometimes you feel bad because you are taught that if you are up 10-0 you just go station to station but you can’t do that in a tournament like this because they could have flipped the switch very easily, so that’s something you really cannot afford to do,” Slattery said. “Winthrop was a great sport. They were very professional, both the players and staff. We didn’t know what to expect from them as this was their first game, so we just came out and tried to play our best game. I’m glad we were on the winning side of it.”
Winthrop was playing its first tournament game. Manager Greg Sullivan said he knew West would be a formidable opponent.
“We knew they’d be tough and none of our guys have swung the bat in competition in close to a month,” Sullivan said. “We need to just dust some cobwebs off. I told them that there’s champions inside each one of these guys and they will be letting them out when the time is right. We’ll be better and we’ll be back.”
West got a scare in the first inning when catcher Owen McMahon took a pitch off his helmet. He dusted himself off and took first base, then singled and scored in the third.
“He’s a gamer, that guy,” Slattery said. “He had two good at bats and is batting a thousand, that little guy, he’s only 11. I don’t have a favorite player because all of them are great in my opinion, but he’s got some qualities that make you want to love him.”
Every player in West’s lineup got into the stat column. Rounding out the hit parade were John Lever (1-for-3, 2 runs), first baseman Will Slattery (1-for-2, double, 2 runs), third baseman Ben Wentzel (1-for-2, 2 RBI) and left fielder Quinn Woodson (1-for-2, RBI). Shortstop C.J. York (RBI), second baseman Matty DiMare (2 runs, stolen base), Sean Jagodynski (run, RBI) and Danny Lancaster (run) also contributed.
Slattery said a key to his team’s success is minimizing chances to commit mistakes in the field and increasing the chances to make contact at the plate.
“We work on the fundamentals and as I’ve said before, the baseball IQs of these kids is off the charts,” Slattery said. “We try to do things to minimize mistakes, things like training to go right to the base with the ball, which saves a lot of time and cuts down the things that happen with cutoffs when they throw the ball around. We try to cut that out.
We do work a lot in the cage batting a lot, so contact up and down the lineup is one thing going for us.”
West is back in action Saturday against Salem (6 p.m.), which defeated East Lynn Saturday to remain in the winners’ bracket. Slattery said, despite two easy wins, West will take some time off and be ready to play.
“You can have an inning like we had in the first then you can have an inning like we had in the second when we hit it to everybody,” he said. “That is what we train for, those 2-1 [situations] but you never want to see a game like this one. Regardless, the kids will be ready to go. We’re giving the kids a few days off. Believe it or not, the kids are a little banged up with practice every day and these games so they will be able to rest their elbows and arms.”
Slattery anticipates Ouellette will be back on the hill against Salem.
“Ben is very efficient. He has some of the best speed I’ve seen, but his ability to locate his pitches even outweighs that,” Slattery said. “We try to ride him, but we are deep in pitching, which we don’t show it because right now the schedule is so elongated, but eventually it’s going to come down to [when] we are going to have three games in five days and we’ll see the rest of our pitchers.”
