Big win over Ipswich improves record to 6-4
Published May 8, 2019
By JAMES CRANNEY
GEORGETOWN – If you were waiting for the Lynnfield bats to start making some noise, you did not have to wait long. The 4-3 Pioneer baseball team traveled north to Georgetown last Tuesday to battle the 2-3 Royals on a brisk April day. From the very first at-bat, Lynnfield set the tone.
It only took three pitches for senior captain Jonathan Luders to find what he was looking for. Luders ripped a shot to deep left bouncing over the outfielder’s shoulder for an opening double. The next at-bat would send the Lynnfield leadoff man home after John Singer drove one up the gap for an RBI single.
“It was good for us after we struggled the other day to get some runs, so that was nice for us to get a little something early,” said Pioneer head coach John O’Brien after the game. “I wish we had gotten more but they made a couple nice plays.”
When it was all said and done, Lynnfield did not need to make any more plays on offense after the performance they got from atop the mound. Senior captain Fernando Gonzalez overpowered the Royals’ rotation tossing a complete game shutout only allowing three hits while striking out 14 Georgetown batters.
“He (Gonzalez) pitched very well, it was good to see,” coach O’Brien added when talking about his starting pitcher’s dominant performance. “The last time out he struggled, so for him to come in and throw strikes like that was key for us, and we played very well behind him.”
Despite taking the 1-0 lead after the first inning, the Pioneers bats would cool off briefly before arriving at the top of the 5th inning. Things got started once again by Luders who reached on an infield single. While on base, Luders slowly crept his way forward before taking off for second. It was a close play but the speedy captain was ruled safe when the dust finally settled. Now with a man on second, down 0-2 in the count, John Singer made an aggressive swing drilling the ball to left field advancing Luders to third base.
With men on the corners, it was time for senior Matt Fiore to try and add to the Pioneer lead. With Fiore down 0-2 in the count, Singer took off from first and slid in safely to second for another Lynnfield stolen base. Fiore was able to make contact and drove in Luders with a sacrifice fly. Singer had also tagged up and put himself in a great position on third base.
Now it was time for the Pioneer pitcher to make a play at the plate. Gonzalez laid down a perfectly executed bunt which allowed Singer to score from third giving the Pioneers a 3-0 lead with only nine outs left.
The Lynnfield bats weren’t finished when the top of the 7th inning rolled around. Fiore led off with an infield single before stealing second and then the Pioneer pitcher stepped up to the plate again. Gonzalez was down 0-2 when he hit a towering single to right field allowing Fiore to score from second base. During the next at-bat junior Clay Marengi would reach first following a Georgetown error. Senior Will Garofoli then delivered a perfect bunt that he would beat out loading the bases for junior Christian Maney. After looking at two balls, Maney hammered the ball into the outfield driving in two more runs extending Lynnfield’s lead to six.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, Gonzalez put the Royals out of their misery striking out the side to complete a 6-0 shutout victory. A great team win for the Pioneers certainly made O’Brien a happy coach.
“We got some clutch base hits where we haven’t been getting them, so hopefully we get a little momentum going into the week and go from there.”
Lynnfield’s next outing would be the opposite of their previous one. The Pioneers took on Amesbury and were shut out themselves 9-0. Lynnfield took on Ipswich Saturday and came away with a dominating 9-2 win.
Now at the halfway mark of the season, this week will bring on Manchester-Essex (Tuesday after press time), Triton (Thursday), and North Reading (Saturday, 11:30 a.m. at Fraser Field) for the 6-4 Pioneers.