BEVERLY — If Thursday night’s Section 4 Little League game against Acton-Boxborough proved one thing, it’s that Swampscott doesn’t give up. Despite a 6-5 loss, snapping a winning streak that spanned over a month, Swampscott still holds its own destiny to the championship game.
That comes Friday, when it faces Danvers National at 7:30 p.m. at Harry Ball Field. If Swampscott wins, it will face the winner of Friday’s Acton-Boxborough and Beverly game for the Section 4 title on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Back to Thursday. In the first inning, Acton-Boxborough ended up scoring four runs – largely in part to a two-run homer from Peter Tyrrell to make it 4-0.
“We haven’t lost a game in a month. To have an inning like that and continue to fight back was great,” said Swampscott manager Mike Brown. “Just proud of the way they came back.”
It took Swampscott a few innings to get the bats going, as the Big Blue only had one baserunner through 12 batters. Come the fourth inning, however, everything changed.
Trailing 5-0 in the top of the fourth inning, Swampscott went on a two-out rally to cut into the lead. Jett Nichols led things off with a double. Then, back-to-back errors from Acton-Boxborough allowed Nichols to score.
Beckett Brown followed with an RBI single to left field (5-2) before Connor Mohan ripped a two-run double to make it a one-run game (5-4).
“We had two outs with the top of the order coming up. It’s not always great having the top of the order up with two outs, but they strung together five hits in a row,” Brown said.
Acton-Boxborough scored an insurance run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 6-4, a run that proved to be pivotal. That’s because, in the top of the sixth, trailing by two runs, Swampscott got a run back through a Johan Standal RBI.
Swampscott had a chance to tie the game – or take the lead – late, but couldn’t convert its opportunity.
