LYNN – The Wyoma Red Sox beat the Pine Hill Reds, 5-3, in the Lynn City Series at Kiley Park Wednesday to advance to the final.
Wyoma starter Nick Galeazzi worked into the sixth inning, allowing two earned runs on four hits with eight strikeouts, before departing after reaching the 85-pitch maximum.
?We have a lot of kids on this team that have been in plenty of big games the last couple of years and they show a lot of poise out there,” Wyoma manager Rick Anderson said.
?The whole key was Nick was outstanding. He pounded the strike zone and was as good as we?ve seen him all year.”
Wyoma?s Anthony Marino and Billy Norcross led off the game with walks. Both moved up on a passed ball with Marino scoring on Shawn Anderson?s fielders choice for a 1-0 lead.
Pine Hill pitcher Aidan Dow got a strikeout and a groundout. But, when a rundown play went wrong — a throw hitting Norcross? helmet — both runners scored giving Wyoma a 3-0 lead.
?That was a really tough break,” Pine Hill manager Pete Dow said. “We had the runner dead to rights and the throw hits his helmet. That?s just the way the breaks go.”
In the second Jack Marks got the Wyoma rally started with a one-out bunt single. Following a strikeout, Dow got within a strike of escaping with no damage but Norcross ripped a home run over the centerfield fence for a 5-0 Wyoma lead.
?I called a high fastball when it should have been a curve down low,” Pete Dow said. “As a coach, I take responsibility for that one.”
Galeazzi, meanwhile, retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced through the first three innings. But in the fourth, Aidan Dow hit a one-out double to left field for Pine Hill?s first hit of the game. Aramis Sanchez followed with a single to center with Dow scoring on an overthrow from the outfield.
Luke Rao took over for Dow on the mound in the fourth for Pine Hill and held Wyoma scoreless the rest of the way.
In the top of the sixth, Pine Hill leadoff batter Miguel Segura reached when his infield pop fell in for a hit. Rao followed with a walk before Dow ripped his second double of the night, bringing both runners home to make it 5-3.But that was as close as Pine Hill got