PEABODY — On days when you don’t get a lot of hits, you have to make the most of what an opponent gives you. That’s exactly what the Peabody Tanners (1-1) did Thursday in a 7-2 win against Northeastern Conference foe Marblehead (2-2).
Peabody had only six hits, but made the most of six walks and three hit batsmen, five of whom scored. A sixth run came home on a daring double steal – two of seven steals the Tanners had in the game. Peabody’s Jacob Crocker had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a stolen base.
“That’s what we’re looking for,” said Peabody Coach Mark Bettencourt. “We didn’t have a lot of hits, but kids found ways to get on base with walks and hit batters. That’s a great day. It’s the equivalent of going 3-for-3. Kids always want to get the batting average up, but it’s all about getting on base. You have to capitalize when teams give you what we got today.”
Marblehead Coach Mike Giardi said the Magicians made too many mental mistakes.
“Physical mistakes are going to happen, but the mental mistakes, the free passes are going to come back to haunt you,” Giardi said. “Peabody is well-coached and will put you in tough positions. I don’t think we came ready to play. They put a lot of pressure on us and were fired up. They did a nice job taking advantage of the opportunities we gave them.”
Peabody starter Joey Smith (4 IP, 4 H, 3 K, 2 BB) set the tone early with a 1-2-3 first inning. Leadoff hitter Jariel Tolentino (OBE, HBP, BB) kept the momentum moving when he reached on an error. Running on the pitch, he advanced to third on Crocker’s single and scored on an infield ground out from Noah Crocker, making it 1-0 in favor of Peabody.
Back-to-back walks to Owen Coyne and David Zampese, plus a single from Cam Quigley (2-for-3, SB) loaded the bases for the Magicians in the top of the second. Smith wriggled out of the jam unscathed with a force at home on a chopper back to the mound and a grounder to second baseman Luke Maglione (2 BB, R, SB).
The Tanners put the game out of reach with three runs in each of the next two innings to bump the lead to 7-0, the big hits a two-run, bases-loaded single from Jayden Cunningham (1-for-4) in the second and a leadoff double from Ethan Waybret (1-for-4) in the third.
Marblehead got on the board in the fifth. Ethan Harwood led off with a double off Tanners’ reliever Dylan Annese (3 IP, 2 ER, H, K, 2 BB) and scored on Stefan Shepard’s (1-for-3) sacrifice fly to left to cut the deficit to 7-1.
In the seventh, Harwood worked a one-out walk and scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-2, but that was it for the Magicians.
Giardi praised the play of Cam Quigley (2-for-3) and was satisfied with the effort of starting pitcher Ian McComish (2.1 IP, 7 R, 4 H, 5 BB).
“Cam had a couple of nice hits for us – he’s a senior captain for a reason,” Giardi said. “I thought Ian didn’t do a bad job on the mound. I thought he had a good rhythm today. We have a lot to work on, but it’s early in the season. Hopefully, we’ll bounce back.”
Bettencourt said the gameplan going in was to limit Smith to 70 pitches.
“Joey knew that coming in,” Bettencourt said. “He was at 69 through four innings, so we went to Dylan, who is one of our veteran guys who needs to get his pitch counts up. He did a good job. He walked a couple of guys there in that last inning, but overall, I was very happy with the pitching.”
Peabody’s next game is Friday at home against Salem (4 p.m.). When asked what he expected from the Witches, Bettencourt said he really didn’t know.
“That’s the thing about this year: Everyone lost so many players that nobody really knows what to expect,” he said. “We know they have a couple of kids coming back, but we really don’t know. We are still just trying to figure things out.”
Marblehead’s next game is also against Salem with the Magicians taking on the Witches Monday at Gallows Hill Park (4 p.m.).
“It’s so early, so it’s hard to know anything about them,” Giardi said. “We just need to be ready to play.”
