FILE PHOTO
Swampscott starter Nate Marston held Woburn to two runs in his two innings of work.
By MIKE ALONGI
BEVERLY — Thanks to a go-ahead, pinch-hit home run by Dalton Juden in the fourth inning, the Swampscott Little League baseball team beat Woburn, 6-2, in the state sectional tournament at Harry Ball Field on Thursday.
“We’ve been waiting for Dalton’s bat to get going,” said Swampscott coach Steven Correnti. “And man, did he pick a perfect time to get it going.”
Swampscott also got solid pitching performances from Nate Marston, Matthew Schroeder and Jonah Cadorette. Marston, who got the start on the mound, tossed the first two innings and gave up two runs on four hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Schroeder came in with a man on third and no outs in the third, then worked through three scoreless innings, giving up two hits and striking out five to earn the win. Cadorette pitched the sixth inning, striking out two.
“We got solid pitching performances from all our guys,” said Correnti. “We only had two runs against, which is actually important in this tournament since runs against are a part of a potential tiebreaker. So that’s great to see.”
Swampscott got the scoring started early. It started in the bottom of the first with Marston’s double to centerfield to get into scoring position with one out. After Woburn recorded the second out, Dylan Dubiel stepped up and ripped an RBI double down the left field line to put Swampscott on the board. Nate DeRoche was up next, and smashed a deep RBI double off the centerfield wall to put Swampscott up 2-0.
But Woburn was able to answer back with a couple runs in the top of the third. After a leadoff double by Michael Chiodo, pitcher Jared Titcomb stepped in and whacked a RBI double down the left field line. Next up was Kyle Arsenault, who added to the doubles party with a bloop hit to centerfield that turned into two bases and drove in Titcomb to tie the score at 2-2.
The score remained that way until the bottom of the fourth. With one out in the inning, Juden stepped in to pinch-hit for Swampscott with the bases empty. It turned out to be a great decision.
Juden launched one over the centerfield wall for a solo home run to give Swampscott the 3-2 lead.
Although that would prove to be enough for the pitching staff, Swampscott added three more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth. Nine hitters came to bat in the fifth, with Dubiel and Cadorette earing RBI walks and DeRoche knocking a RBI single.
The marathon tournament doesn’t stop, as Swampscott will be back at it this evening at 5:30 p.m. against a powerful Andover team.
“They put up a lot of runs,” said Correnti. “They put up double digits in runs on Wednesday and today. They have some really good hitters, but we have some really good pitchers. So we’ll see what happens.”