ITEM PHOTO BY KATIE MORRISON
Peabody second baseman Danny Barrett hauls in a catch as right fielder Eli Batista is ready to provide backup.
By MIKE ALONGI
LYNN — Although the Peabody Little League All-Stars were almost guaranteed a spot in the next round of the sectional tournament due to the run differential, they still wanted to end the round-robin portion of the tournament with a win on Friday. Unfortunately, they ran into a hard-swinging Reading team and lost, 13-3, in a five-inning game at Reinfuss Field.
“Obviously you hate to see your most recent game be your worst performance so far,” said Peabody coach Justin Powers. “Obviously it was a good hitting team we went up against tonight, we knew that coming in, but we’ve got to have some better at-bats up there as well. We didn’t do ourselves any favors tonight.”
Peabody was light on pitchers coming into this game, as it had used its top three pitchers over the first two games of the tournament. Despite that, Peabody got solid performances from Danny Barrett and Joey Raymond.
“We were short on pitching coming into tonight and we knew that, but we’ve got to give Danny and Joey credit,” Powers said. “Those guys haven’t thrown in probably a month, since we went through the whole district tournament and this tournament with three pitchers basically, so the job those guys did tonight is definitely commendable.”
Reading came out swinging right away to open the game. After two straight singles to open the game, No. 3 hitter Thomas Fratto stepped in and launched a towering three-run home run to get the scoring started. Peabody recorded two outs before Matt Ronayne walked, then Yianni Andrikopolous laced an RBI double to right-centerfield to make it 4-0.
After Reading pitcher Jacob Carter moved through the Peabody order 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first, Anthony DeVito smashed a solo home run to lead off the top of the second to make it 5-0.
Peabody was able to push a couple of runs across in the bottom of the second. Justin Powers walked to open up the inning and advanced to second on a passed ball, then Robert Galvis knocked him in on an RBI single to centerfield. Peabody then loaded up the bases with two outs, but was only able to get one more run out of it on an RBI single from Carson Browne.
Reading added two more runs in the top of the fourth, then exploded for a big six-run inning in the top of the fifth to blow the game wide open at 13-2. Ben McGilvray (four RBI), Fatta, Carter and Ben Wright all recorded RBIs.
Peabody grabbed one run back in the bottom of the fifth when a run scored on an error in the outfield, but Reading was able to close it out and end the game in five innings.
Now, Peabody has to prepare for the sectional final against Gloucester this evening. The two teams played in the round-robin opener on Wednesday, a game that Gloucester won 6-5.
“We obviously know we have a tough test ahead of us, Gloucester is a very strong team,” Powers said. “They’ve got great hitting and a very balanced rotation, so we’ll have to be at our best. If we can go in there and play the way we’re capable of playing, I think we’ve got a great shot.”
First pitch for the sectional final will be at 6:30 p.m. at Reinfuss Field.