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Jake Zeuli was the tough-luck loser against Lowell Sunday.
By ANNE MARIE TOBIN
NORWOOD — The Middleton-Peabody American Legion Post 153 team was done in as much by the rulebook as by its opponents this past weekend.
Middleton-Peabody lost in straight sets Saturday and Sunday, to Shrewsbury Post 397 (14-2) and Lowell (5-2). But the team had a nasty curveball thrown its way minutes before the start of the Shrewsbury game when legion officials ruled that two of its starting players were ineligible to play for the team. They were scratched from the lineup and Shrewsbury went on to win the game via mercy rule.
The problem involved two players from Middleton who were considered postgraduates. The rule in that case dictates that they must play on the same team they did a year earlier, but since the teams merged prior to this season, that wasn’t possible. Post 153 went the entire season without having the rule affect it, but it was brought to the state’s attention Saturday.
“The rule was changed last year, but it didn’t come to the surface until five minutes before yesterday’s (Saturday’s) game,” manager John Kowaski said. “It was too bad, because it meant we were without two kids who have leaders all season long and it definitely affected our mood.”
Peabody rising senior Jake Zeuli got the start against Lowell and was the hard luck loser.
In the bottom of the first, he got the first two batters easily on infield grounders, but left fielder Michael Mercury reached on an error, the first of five Middleton-Peabody would make in the game. Mercury was stranded at third when Zeuli induced a routine fly ball to right fielder Trevor Lodi of Peabody.
Zeuli wasn’t as fortunate in the second as Lowell capitalized on three Middleton-Peabody errors to take a 4-0 lead. All five Lowell runs were unearned.
Zeuli helped his own cause with a leadoff triple in the top of the fourth. He scored on a long sacrifice fly by Joseph DeBlasio to cut the deficit to 4-1.
Lynnfield catcher Dan O’Leary led off the seventh by getting hit. He advanced to second when first baseman Spencer Balian, also of Lynnfield, walked, then scored when Lynnfield center fielder Nick Colucci’s hard chopper to third was misplayed, making it a two-run game at 4-2, but that as close as it would get.
“We achieved everything we set out to do, winning a district title and playing for a state championship,” Kowaski said. “We faced two great teams and I’m proud of the boys for the way they improved and they way they completely committed to the team.
“Today, we got great pitching from Jake and Eli (Varinos of Masconomet), but errors were the difference in the game. I told the boys that after what happened on Saturday, they really rebounded today.”
Varinos led the offense with two singles and a walk in five at bats, while Colucci (1-for-4) and Jack Connors (3 walks) reached base three times and O’Leary (run scored) reached base twice.
Zeuli pitched five innings, giving up five unearned runs on five hits, a walk and two strikeouts.
Varinos went three innings in relief. He gave up two hits, walked two and hit a batter.
The highlight of the game was a 3-6-2 double play pulled off by Balian, Zeuli and O’Leary in the eighth inning. Lowell had runners at second and third with no outs. Harrison Silva grounded to first. Balian stepped on the bag to get the first out, then whipped it across the diamond to Zeuli to catch the runner caught off second when Funaro held at third. Funaro broke for home, but was cut down by Zeuli’s throw to O’Leary, who managed to hang on the ball despite a cloud of dust to complete the double play.
Against Shrewsbury, Middleton-Peabody has nothing in the tank offensively. Its only hit in the game was a second inning single by Colucci.
Shrewsbury jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Varinos led off the bottom of the inning with a walk and got to second on a wild pitch. DeBlasio’s hard grounder to short was misplayed, with Varinos scoring on the play. Another infield error brought DeBlasio home, making it a 3-2 game.
Shrewsbury added two in the fourth and a solo run in the fifth to stretch the lead to 6-2. In the sixth, Shrewsbury sent 14 men to the plate and exploded for eight runs to put the game out of reach and send Middleton-Peabody into the losers’ bracket.