ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Ryan Fraher huggs Anthony Marino after Anthony crossed home plate in their Babe Ruth game against Saugus played in Peabody.
By SCOT COOPER
PEABODY — The Lynn 13-year old Babe Ruth all-stars demolished Saugus in the opening game of the annual District 1 tournament Thursday, winning 16-0.
Lynn got up in the top of the first and sent 18 batters to the plate and scored 13 times. Lynn catcher Ethaniel Almendarez said he knew his team could rake the ball, but he didn’t think they it explode like it did to open the game, with a double-digit output.
“We have a lot of kids who can hit, and we hit really well tonight,” he said. “I knew we could score a lot of runs, and we did. We had a lot of big hits in this game.”
Almendarez, who had three hits and two RBI, said “it was a good start for our team, we have very good hitters.”
Lost in the shuffle of the base hits and runs, was Lynn’s pitching. The team used three hurlers and all three held Saugus scoreless through five innings. The game was called after five, because Lynn was up way over the 10-run mercy rule limit.
Anthony Mateo started the game for Lynn, and got solid relief work from Anthony Marino and Jason Donohue. Lynn manager Brian O’Connor said everything worked out great for his team Thursday.
“We know we can hit against just about anybody and we certainly hit tonight,” O’Connor said. “I used three guys on the mound, spread them out, and now they are all eligible to pitch in the next game (Friday at 5 p.m. against Swampscott/Nahant). “Mateo’s certainly an ace, he did a great job and then Marino and Donohue came in and they pitched very well too.”
“This team was together last year in the Gallant Tournament and they lost the opening game, and this group hasn’t lost since that game,” O’Connor said. “We have a very solid team.”
Eight of the 10 Lynn batters that started the game not only reached safely, but they all scored as well. Marino and Christian Moran each had multiple hits and scored three runs apiece. Almandarez, Nolan Mulcahy and Aaron O’Connor scored two runs each.
Aiven Cabral, Steven Galatis, Donohue and Mateo all had hits and scored runs for the winners. Lynn had multiple runners on base every inning, scoring 13 in the first, two in the second and one in the third before Saugus pitchers Tom Falasca and Drew Gardiner shut Lynn down in the fourth and fifth.
For Saugus, Gardiner, Massimino Ventre, Kyle McLaughlin and Colin Ronan had base hits. Saugus manager Paul Ventre said his team has to have a very short memory, shake off the Lynn game and get ready for Revere, Friday night at 7:30.
“This is a great bunch of kids, we had a very tough first inning, obviously, but we’ll need to shake this one off right away and get ready for the next game,” Ventre said. “A loss is a loss, so we have to forget about this one and get ready for the next game.”