LYNN — Despite a bit of rust after not playing a game in over a month, the Wyoma Red Sox brought the hot bats and took down the West Lynn Red Sox, 10-2, in a City Series winner’s bracket semifinal game at Kiley Park on Tuesday evening.
“Having not played a game in six or seven weeks, it certainly wasn’t pretty out there but we did what we had to do,” said Wyoma coach Rick Anderson. “We had the one big inning thanks to some good at-bats and then we got the good pitching from everyone, so it was a pretty good performance all-around.”
Wyoma got solid pitching performances from Jack Anderson, Shea Palmer and Ben Beyea, as the trio combined to give up just two runs on two hits in the entire game. Aidan George led the offense with two RBI, while Beyea, Henry Azzun, Colin Nickolau, Shea Newhall and Ryan Fila each added one RBI.
“The main thing with our pitching was we kept all our pitch counts down, so everyone will be ready to go for Thursday,” Anderson said. “On the offensive side, we benefited from some walks and errors and things like that, but we hit the ball well enough today.”
West Lynn looked like it was getting off to a great start in the top of the first. Dominic Giordano led off the game with a double, then advanced to third and scored on consecutive passed balls to make it 1-0. But Anderson quickly recovered and got out of the inning without further damage.
Then it was Wyoma’s turn. A single, a walk and an error loaded the bases in the bottom of the first, then Nickolau and Newhall drew consecutive walks to take a 2-1 lead. Beyea then added an RBI infield single, a run scored on an error and Fila capped things off with an RBI single. When the dust settled at the end of the first, Wyoma had a 6-1 lead.
Wyoma added another run in the bottom of the second after Palmer hit a leadoff double and George drove him in.
West Lynn got one run back in the top of the third when Nevin Gonzalez brought home a run on an RBI groundout, but that was as close as it would get.
After George drove in his second run in the bottom of the third to make it 8-2, Wyoma stretched the lead in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI single from Azzun and a passed ball, making it 10-2.
“We knew we had to bring our bench in to pitch but we had to make plays on the field,” West Lynn coach Jason Gallo said. “We counted seven or eight errors. Seven of Wyoma’s runs were unearned runs. It was just one of those days, every team has them.”
The big win was especially satisfying for Wyoma, who dedicated its City Series run to the memory of the late Wayne Kerrins, a fixture in the Wyoma community, who passed away in late June. Kerrins not only coached in Wyoma for many years, but he was one of the main salespeople from Neatco (Northeast Athletic Trophy Company), the Peabody sports apparel company that supplies Wyoma with all its equipment.
“Wayne has been a big part of Wyoma baseball for a long time,” Anderson said. “I’ve been dealing with him for the last five years as the treasurer (of Wyoma), so I’ve been the one paying the bills for the equipment and stuff and I’ve gotten to know him pretty well. Plus, being a longtime coach in Wyoma, you knew he loved Wyoma. We just thought, with his passing a few weeks ago, it would be nice to dedicate our run in the City Series this year to Wayne and his family. So hopefully we can continue to win games and make him proud.”
Wyoma doesn’t have much time to rest, as it will be back in action on Thursday in the winner’s bracket final against Lynn Shore.
“We’re pretty much just looking to keep knocking the rust off and hope we can come up with a few more big hits so we don’t have to necessarily rely on walks and errors for runs,” Anderson said. “I think we’ll be going up against the top pitcher for each team the rest of the way, so we’re going to have to work for everything.”
Wyoma and Lynn Shore will face off at 5:45 p.m. on Thursday at Kiley Park.
West Lynn awaits the winner of today’s game between Pine Hill and East Lynn.
“We have to play better defense,” Gallo said. “Nothing went right today. We didn’t run the bases well. We have to pitch well, keep the runners off base and not allow walks. We have to play good defense. Today we brought our D- game and you can’t get by with that in the City Series. We need our A game.”