PEABODY — Although it was a cold evening, the bats were hot for host Peabody (1-0), which rallied back from a five-run deficit to beat Winthrop (1-1), 12-6, on Tuesday.
Back to that deficit. The Tanners found themselves stuck in a 5-0 hole after two innings thanks to the Vikings’ Phil Boncore, who drove in two runs in the first inning to give Winthrop a 2-0 cushion. Then, the next inning, Mike Donahue registered a two-RBI infield single to make it 5-0.
“I have a lot of faith in them. Even going into this game, we were hitting pretty well and putting the bat on the ball. We’re an aggressive team,” said Winthrop coach Mark DeGregorio. “We like to steal bases and move people around. This team is young, but they have a lot of potential. I think we just got away from ourselves in the last few innings today.”
To stop the bleeding, Tanners’ coach Mark Bettencourt pulled his starting pitcher, Remy Guerrero (5 strikeouts), after two innings and replaced him with Dylan Annese (4).
“Pitching-wise, Remy didn’t have his best stuff tonight, but Dylan Annese comes in and bails us out – he kept them from scoring. I think they got one run, but it was unearned,” Bettencourt said. “Then, Cam Connolly (3 strikeouts) comes in and shuts the door and does what he does.”
Peabody scored its first run in the third inning after Connolly – facing two outs, to boot – brought home Jariel Tolentino with a base hit.
“I kept telling the guys they didn’t need to get all five runs back in one inning,” Bettencourt said. “It’s like in football and you’re down three touchdowns. It seems insurmountable, but if you shorten the game and go one drive at a time, you can come back.”
The Tanners – true to their coach’s words – scored another two runs in the fourth inning, followed by four more in the fifth.
Speaking of the fifth, Peabody had runners on second and third when Bettencourt decided to pinch hit. He pulled Joey Smith and replaced him with freshman Dylan Cunningham, who drove the ball deep to right field, bringing in a run for a 7-6 lead.
“It was a choice of whether we wanted to play small ball and squeeze, or put someone in who can give us a deep sac-fly,” Bettencourt said. “Joey, at the time, was 0-for-2 with a couple of strikeouts. Dylan – all five games – has been putting the ball in play and has hit several deep fly balls for us. I told him it was a situation in which I’d take a sac-fly and he came through for us.”
It would’ve been easy for Smith to hang his head after being pulled. That said, he came up big later in the game when he hit a bases-loaded, three-RBI double to seal the Tanners’ win in game one.
“It’s about having a short memory and not worrying about coaching decisions. You have to swallow that pill and move on,” Bettencourt said. “Sometimes, you’re going to like it, sometimes, you don’t. I’m happy that Joey had a short memory and got his confidence back.”
For DeGregorio, he liked what he saw from his team and praised Peabody for its spirited comeback.
“The pitching, I thought, was pretty good today. I think we played pretty tight, though,” he said. “We went up 5-1 and Peabody is a good team. They are fundamentally sound, they can pitch the ball, and hit well. We knew they would come back. We just got tight and made some errors. We didn’t play like ourselves. I tip my hat off to Peabody – they’re a well-coached team. We just need to find a way to play with a lead.”
Early in the spring sports season, Bettencourt acknowledged that teams are still finding their identities and strengths.
“It’s a typical early-April game. A lot of mistakes, cobwebs being shaken off,” he said. “Found out some things we have to work on, as did Winthrop. We know what we have to work on. Some things that we thought we were strong in, we weren’t today and have to get better.”
“Offensively, we saw clutch hits from many different kids, which excites me. You know, on any given day, a kid can go 0-for-4. Having different guys contributing is big going forward,” he added. “Today, a couple of our guys had a good day and others struggled, but that’s how the season always goes.”
Peabody’s game that was scheduled for Thursday against Somerville has been rescheduled to April 19. The Tanners hope to take the field Friday when they travel to Swampscott for a 4 p.m. game. Winthrop looks to find its winning ways Saturday when it visits Rockport at 2 p.m.
