LYNNFIELD — It wasn’t the start the Lynnfield baseball team was hoping to get off to. The Pioneers made eight errors, struggled to string together timely hits and dropped their season opener, 7-0, to North Reading at Lynnfield High on Tuesday afternoon.
“I’ll give North Reading credit,” Lynnfield coach John O’Brien said. “They made all the plays. They made some nice plays too. We just made too many mistakes early that came back to haunt us. We hit the ball hard a few times. Their kids made some nice plays. We had eight errors. How can you beat a good team with eight errors?”
Pioneers starting pitcher Fernando Gonzalez, a left-hander, tossed five solid innings. Lynnfield’s defense, however, struggled to support him.
The top of the first inning saw Lynnfield dig itself into a hole the Pioneers couldn’t climb out of. Two errors and a passed ball, combined with singles from North Reading’s Marco Vitozzi and Jack Keller, allowed the Hornets to storm out to a 4-0 lead.
“We have a lot of new guys here,” O’Brien said. “We lost 10 guys from last season’s team. There are a lot of guys fighting for playing time so it’s going to take a little while. I think we hit the ball decent but we hit it right at them. I’ll give their pitcher (Connor Ryan) credit. He threw the ball well and threw a lot of strikes.”
Jon Luders and Cooper Marengi earned walks in the bottom of the first but the Pioneers couldn’t make anything out of the opportunity.
Lynnfield’s best chance to get back into the game took place in the bottom of the second inning. Dan Jameson hit a one-out single and Clayton Marengi followed by roping a double down the right field line. The promising frame came to an end with a line-out to first base that turned into an inning-ending double play.
“We didn’t get any hits when we needed them,” O’Brien said. “We had runners on second and third and we hit a line shot right at the first baseman. Another chance ended when we hit a shot right at the center fielder. We had a big double in the sixth inning but by then we were down 7-0. It’s a tough way to start.”
From there, the only hits Lynnfield collected were a single from Cooper Marengi in the bottom of the third, a double from Gonzalez in the sixth and a single form John Singer in the seventh. The Pioneers finished with five hits.
North Reading added a run in the top of the third after a sacrifice fly from Dante Centofanti’s bat scored Alex Dambrosio, who hit a single to start the inning. The lead stretched to 7-0 in the top of the fifth when the Hornets tacked on two runs with a two-out rally. Matt Debendetto scored on an infield error and Keller came home on Centofanti’s RBI single.
“Hopefully this was a learning experience today,” O’Brien said. “We’re trying a bunch of new guys. Hopefully we’ll be able to find the right group of guys that’ll give us the best chance to win. It’s early in the season. I thought we’d play a little bit better today but we just didn’t make the plays when we had to.”
Gonzalez tallied three strikeouts in his five innings of work. William Garofoli came on in relief in the sixth and pitched two scoreless innings.
Lynnfield (0-1) hopes to bounce back with a win on Thursday when the Pioneers battle Triton.
“Their coach (Ryan McCarthy) does a nice job,” O’Brien said of the Vikings. “He’s got some kids back from last year. He has a nice shortstop, a big outfielder and he’s got some arms too. We’ll have our hands full so we have to be ready to play.”