ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Tyler Fawcett swings at a pitch.
By Mike Alongi
SALEM — It was a true pitchers’ duel on Thursday night as the Gallant Tournament began at Forest River Park.
Peabody’s Chris Faraca and Beverly’s combination of Joe Brown, Joe Kotwicki and Dom Santos battled for a full seven innings. In the end, it was Beverly who got the best of the matchup and notched the win, 2-1, in a seventh-inning comeback.
“We came up against a great pitcher tonight, we were lucky to scratch across a couple of runs,” said Beverly coach Rich Bernard. “We managed to string a little something together at the end there and push a couple across, but we won ugly tonight.”
Brown, Kotwicki and Santos combined to give up just one run on three hits with four walks and nine strikeouts. On the other side, Faraca pitched 6 2/3 innings and gave up one run on two hits with five walks and 15 strikeouts.
“I was really happy with our pitching performance,” said Bernard. “We’re still following pitch counts here to protect the kids’ arms, so it was good to get contributions from everyone.”
Peabody coach Fred Greener applauded Faraca’s performance on the mound in the tough loss.
“Chris pitched a great game for us,” said Greener. “Overall it was a great game, a great pitching duel, but we need to find ways to get some runs on the board going forward.”
The score remained at 0-0 until the top of the fifth, when Danny Barrett hit a two-out triple down the right field line. A throwing error on the cutoff allowed Barrett to score on the play and give Peabody the 1-0 lead.
Beverly threatened to get the run right back in the bottom of the fifth. After a walk, and bunt single and a sacrifice bunt placed runners on second and third with two outs, Faraca was faced with his toughest challenge of the night. But he escaped the jam, notching a huge strikeout to get out unscathed.
The next inning and a half went scoreless. But in the bottom of the seventh, Beverly finally got something going. A leadoff walk and a sacrifice bunt put the tying run on second with one out. A bunt single then placed runners on second and third. One run came in on a passed ball to tie the game at 1-1, but Faraca battled back to get a strikeout.
After another walk, however, Faraca’s day was done. The new pitcher came on in relief with runners on first and third and two outs. On the first batter, another passed ball brought in the winning run from third base, ending the game.
Beverly moves on to play Lynn on Saturday at 4 p.m. Peabody will play on Sunday.