PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Matt McIntire fouls off a tough pitch.
By STEVE KRAUSE
BEVERLY — This wasn’t the way the Swampscott Little League wanted its quest for another state championship to begin.
Beverly’s first hitter in the Section 4 playoffs Wednesday night at Harry Ball Field reached on an error. After a strikeout, Joe Loretti launched one over the left-field fence for a two-run homer.
That set the tone for the game, a 6-0 Beverly win in the first of three pool-play contests that will ultimately determine which team from the sectional goes on to the state tournament.
Things couldn’t have gone better for Beverly — or worse for Swampscott. Four Beverly pitchers — Joe Kotwicki, Brendan Frost, Dominic Santos and Joe Brown — limited Swampscott to just an infield hit. And while Swampscott’s Pierce Friedman didn’t pitch badly, he got no bat support and little glove support as his teammates made three errors.
“This isn’t how we played in getting here,” said manager Steve Correnti. “We’re going to have to go back home, get our heads on straight and come back here (tonight) to play.”
Correnti thought Friedman competed well enough.
“He wasn’t as sharp as he could have been,” Correnti said. “But he competed and kept us in the game, which is all we ask.”
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first, Beverly tacked on another run in the second, with an error playing a big role. Santos led off by reaching on a dropped outfield fly. Austin Bernard reached on a fielder’s choice and moved up a base on an infield grounder. However, Kotwicki blasted a double that scored Santos from second and made it 3-0.
And that’s how it stayed until the top of the fifth when Beverly struck three more times with some two-out magic. Charlie Mack got an infield single and scored on Brown’s double to center field. Frost followed by clubbing a home run over the right-field fence to score two runs.
Swampscott looked as if it might mount a thread in the bottom of the seventh when, with one out, Matt McIntire and Dylan Dubiel drew walks (Dubiel had three in the game).
However, Matthew DeRoche slapped a hard grounder to short, and Beverly turned the double play to end the game.
“We came ready to play” said Beverly manager Brady Frost. “We got good pitching and solid defense, and Loretti got us going in the right direction.”
Swampscott is back in action tonight (7:30) against Woburn while Beverly has the early game (5:30) against Andover National.
Wednesday night’s game was an hour late getting started as the first game, between Andover National and Woburn, went well over 2 1/2 hours, with Andover winning, 16-5.