ITEM PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Brett Bucklin held Apple Valley scoreless in his two innings of work Sunday.
By SCOT COOPER
LYNN — The Lynn Babe Ruth all-stars had to win Sunday night to keep playing in the New England Regional Tournament, and they did, 13-3, over Apple Valley, the Maine state champions.
Lynn will face off today (11) against the state champion from Connecticut, Trumbull (3-0), in one of the two semifinal games. Pittsfield will face North Providence, R.I., in the other game at 2 p.m. The winners play for the championship, and a berth in the Babe Ruth World Series, Tuesday at 11.
All games are at Fraser Field.
Lynn lost its first game of the tournament against Pittsfield Friday, but has outscored its opponents 19-6, since, its win Sunday coming one night after it defeated Medford, 6-3, Saturday.
Apple Valley (0-3) was never quite in the game, as Lynn (2-1) put up three in the top of the first and another four in the third to cruise home. Lynn manager Leon Elwell said that the key to Sunday night’s win was the same as the win over Medford.
“We used everybody, and all 15 guys chipped in, and had a part in the win,” Elwell said. “We got contributions up and down the lineup, we used four pitchers, and everybody’s ready for tomorrow (Monday).”
Elwell said it was a must-win game Sunday, and the team’s focus was on Apple Valley only.
“This game tonight was one we had to have to advance, a must win for us,” Elwell said. “We knew that they (Apple Valley) were just playing for pride, we didn’t take them lightly. We were able to score a bunch of runs early, and the kids did a great job tonight.”
Lynn got things going with one out in the first inning. Aedan Leydon took a ball off his helmet from Apple Valley’s Reid Cote and went to first. Christian Burt doubled putting runners on second and third for David Barnard. Barnard grounded to second, and Leydon beat the throw home for the first run.
Burt came around on a double by A. J. Luciano, and Barnard came home on a groundout by Dayshon Anderson, and Lynn never looked back.
Brett Bucklin pitched the first two innings for Lynn, followed by Mike Leavitt, Erick Ubri and Anderson. Maine pushed a run across in the bottom of the fifth off of Leavitt, that score made it 9-1.
Trailing 13-1 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Apple Valley had to score four runs to extend the game. It got a couple, but the game ended after six innings because of the 10-run rule.
Apple Valley Manager Dan Dion said that his team was never able to get anything going against Lynn, and the team was hurt the entire tournament, with their top pitcher, Kyle Hewitt, out with a shoulder injury.
“We picked a bad time for our bats to go cold, and making errors really killed us,” Dion said. “We made eight errors in the last two games, and you just can’t do that against good teams.”
Lynn scored seven of their 13 runs off of Apple Valley miscues, two passed balls and a wild pitch in the fourth for two runs, and three errors and a wild pitch that led to four runs in the top of the sixth.
Elwell said scoring so many runs early was a big boost to his team.
“We talked about it before the game, we had to win this game, and we were able to win it like the game we won against Medford on Saturday,” Elwell said. “We came out strong, everyone contributed, and we’ve got another big one (Monday).”