PHOTO BY JOHN GEYERMAN
Erick Ubri, left, and Zach Elwell, right, express their displeasure after Lynn’s 10-0 loss to Atlantic Shore, N.J., Saturday afternoon.
By Steve Krause
WILLISTON, N.D. — The disparity was too much to overlook. While Atlantic Shore, N.J., was running wild, Lynn ran itself out of the game.
That’s the story, in a nutshell, of Saturday’s Babe Ruth World Series-opening loss to Shore, a 10-0 drubbing that was over in just 4½ innings.
“You can’t play the way we played and expect to win the World Series,” said Lynn manager Leon Elwell. “We just didn’t make plays in the field, and we had an inning there where we had a real opportunity and we made too many mistakes.”
Shore stole six bases, two of them in a first inning that gave it the only run it would need. Nick Atohi singled up the middle with one out, and went to second on an infield hit by Solomon Griffith. They each moved up a base via steals, and then Atohi came home on a wild pitch.
“That’s us,” said Shore manager Bill Rauzzino, who, in the 1980s, managed in the Swampscott Babe Ruth system. “That’s what we like to do. I think both teams had jitters, and I think running helped get some of ours out, and I also think it unsettles the other team more.”
Elwell wasn’t sure about that.
“I don’t think them stealing had anything to do with how we played,” Elwell said. “We didn’t make the plays.”
Lynn had a chance to answer that run, and then some, in the top of the second inning. Dayshon Anderson led off with a triple. But with Anthony Nikalakakis up, one of pitcher Cole Vanderslice’s pitches broke past catcher Athoi. Anderson started to break for home, then stopped, and then broke again and was tagged out. The play proved very costly because Nikalakakis followed with a base hit to right.
However, Nikalakakis would also be thrown out on the bases. Zach Elwell squared to bunt, but the pitch was high and outside. Nikalakakis broke for second, but Atohi gunned him down.
“We had Anderson with a triple to lead off, and we don’t score,” Elwell said. “Those are mistakes we just shouldn’t be making by now.”
To make matters even worse, Elwell was hit by a pitch, and it just further underscored the potentially big inning that went by the boards.
Shore responded in the bottom of the third by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring six runs off starting pitcher David Barnard and reliever Matt Gisonno. Vanderslice and Atohi had back-to-back walks to lead off, and, after Vanderslice stole third, Griffith knocked him in with a single. Omar Hernandez cleared the bases with a triple to make the score 4-0.
Devin Sharkey scorched a grounder to Anderson, who chose to go home to get Hernandez, but the ball bounced past Elwell and the fifth run scored. William Storck followed with a single, and Nick Abrams brought them both home with another triple to make the score 7-0.
Shore was back for three more in the fourth to make it 10-0. Atohi, Griffith and each walked, followed by RBI singles by Storck and Abrams. The 10th run came home on Nick Walsh’s sacrifice fly.