PEABODY — The Lynnfield Little League 12-year-old All-Star team got off to a smashing start in the District 16 tournament, defeating defending District 16 and Section 4 champion Peabody, 9-0, at Lt. Ross Park Saturday.
Lynnfield starter Nico Mandell and reliever Luca Mandell combined for a no-hitter. Nico Mandell was dominant, striking out 14 batters across 5 1/3 innings.
Luca Mandell came on in the sixth with one out. He needed just two pitches to put the game in the win column, thanks to a nifty double-play. With Peabody’s William Melanson on second and Alex MacKillop on first after being hit, Petey Delgado drilled a hard grounder up the middle. Shortstop Matt Cavallo snagged it and stepped on second for the force, then fired to first baseman Ben O’Hara to end the threat.
“That double play was tremendous,” said Lynnfield manager Chris Cavallo. “Our pitching was phenomenal today. Nico was throwing mostly straight fastballs and they weren’t catching up to them. If the guys catch up to your fastball, then you start with curveballs and off-speed stuff. He never had to and was on the whole game.”
“I think those are the two best pitchers in the district,” Peabody manager Gerald MacKillop said of the brothers. “Our guy (Caleb Dube) held his own and Nico is at a different level. With his size and how hard he throws, Nico just intimidates, but we just didn’t make the adjustments. We played four-and-a-half good innings and hung with them. Caleb kept us in it, but you can’t make mistakes against a good team like Lynnfield.”
The game was up for grabs heading into the bottom of the fourth inning with Lynnfield clinging to a 3-0 lead. Dube (5 1/3 IP, 5 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 4 K, 2 BB) had done his job, holding Lynnfield to just three hits and one earned run.
But Lynnfield broke out the bats in a big way — the key hits being back-to-back RBI singles from Maverick Murphy (1-for-3) and O’Hara (1-for-2) in the fourth, scoring Nico Cavallo (1-for-2) and John Kayola, who led off with a single and a walk, to make it 5-0 after four.
Lynnfield put the game out of reach in the fifth, thanks to Matt Cavallo (2-for-3, 2B, 2 R) and Nico Mandell (1-for-3, 2 RBI, R), who capped the scoring with twin two-run homers.
“Caleb pitched really well and kept our guys off balance for a while, but we’re a good-hitting team,” Chris Cavallo said. “You can get through a couple of innings, but all our guys were swinging and hitting.”
Lynnfield, which won district titles as 10s and 11s, didn’t waste any time grabbing the lead in this one. Matt Cavallo led off the bottom of the first with a ripped double, got to third on an infield grounder, and scored when the throw from first got past Peabody’s third baseman.
Marco Bevilacqua reached on an infield error to lead off the third. Matt Geary sacrificed him to second. No. 12 hitter Jack Feeley (1-for-2, 2 R) brought Bevilacqua home with a long double to make it 2-0. Luca Mandell’s (1-for-2, R) RBI single made it 3-0.
“That’s your 10, 11, and 12 hitters contributing big,” Chris Cavallo said. “Our guys can all hit, but that was huge from the bottom of the lineup. Honestly, they all produced today.”
Meanwhile, Nico Mandell found his groove. After issuing a one-out walk to Jake Downey in the first, Mandell retired his next 13 batters, striking out a dozen of them. He struck out eight straight before allowing a two-out walk to Harry Welton in the fifth.
A highlight for Peabody was the defensive play of Welton at third. With a 5-0 lead and runners at first and second with no outs in the fourth, Lynnfield was looking to blow the game open. Welton ended the threat with three unassisted defensive gems.
“Harry is just a solid player and making those three plays was huge to get us out of trouble,” Gerald MacKillop said.
Lynnfield is back in action Tuesday at Peabody’s MacArthur Park against Salem, which had a first-round bye. First pitch is at 5:45 p.m.
“We’ll be ready for them,” Chris Cavallo said.
Peabody has plenty of time to right the ship before playing an elimination game on July 7 (5:45 p.m.) against the loser of Tuesday’s game between Peabody West and Wyoma.
“We’ll have about 10 days off to work on some of the things we didn’t deliver today. We needed to get our offense going to put some pressure on them, but I’m proud of the way we hung around,” Gerald MacKillop said. “We have to get the kids’ confidence back to the level of, ‘Whoever we play, we’ll go right at them.’ It was a tough start, but that’s why it’s a double-elimination tournament.”
