By STEPHEN MARTELLUCCI
LYNN — A strong summer season came to an end for the Lynnfield 12-year-old Little League baseball team on July 12 as they lost, 4-0, to West Peabody at Pine Hills in Lynn.
With that defeat, Lynnfield ended the tournament with a final record of 4-2. West Peabody, meanwhile, lost the District 16 final to Swampscott in their next game, 1-0, last Thursday.
“It was a tough game,” admitted Lynnfield head coach Dave Polcari. “We made a couple of mistakes that hurt us.”
An RBI-double from William Slattery in the first inning gave West Peabody a 1-0 lead.
They then plated three runs in the third. West Peabody scored the first one on an error and then Ben Ouellette had a key, two-run single to make it 4-0.
Lynnfield’s offense got only four hits off Slattery. Joey Polcari, Ryan Barrett and Evan Swales all singled while Mike Mattia doubled.
“He threw hard,” said Polcari about Slattery. “We couldn’t put those hits together.”
Slattery, who pitched all six innings, fanned nine.
Paul Tappan finished 1-1 on the hill for the tournament. He gave up just two earned runs, four hits, four walks and he struck out six in four innings.
The day before the loss to West Peabody, Lynnfield shut out Salem, 10-0, in a five-inning mercy-rule game at Grabowski Field in Saugus.
Polcari was the winning pitcher going 4 1/3 innings. He gave up four hits, four walks and he fanned seven.
“He was really good considering he didn’t pitch for over a month,” explained coach Polcari, about his son. “He kept their hitters off balance.”
Lynnfield scored two runs in the first and third innings. They added one in the top of the fourth and broke the game open with five in the top of the fifth.
Mattia was the hitting star going 2 for 3 with a team-high four runs batted in. He also struck out the final two batters in relief of Polcari (pitch limit) to end the game.
Dan Murphy was 1 for 1 with a walk, and was hit by a pitch. He knocked in one run as well.
Chase Austin added an RBI single while Owen Burke, Kevin Geary, Mike D’Amelio and Tappan all had one hit as the team finished with eight hits overall.
Polcari had an RBI on a sacrifice fly.
Coach Polcari was proud of the kids’ effort throughout the tournament.
“The kids played pretty well overall and competed hard,” stated Polcari. “They were fun to coach.”