LYNN — One bad inning was all it took to spell “trouble” for West Lynn Saturday afternoon in the District 16 Little League All-Star Tournament.
Winthrop took advantage of seven West Lynn errors in the top of the third inning to plate 11 runs, en route to a 12-1 mercy-rule four-inning win at Kiley Park.
With the loss, West Lynn is eliminated from the tournament.
“You can’t win a game when you have an inning like that,” West Lynn manager Eric Hannabury said. “I’m proud of these kids. It’s my last year coaching them so I’m proud of every one of them. It’s good to see a good effort in our last game. We hit a little better than our first game (loss to Swampscott) but unfortunately our defense failed us.”
Winthrop continues its District 16 quest with a game tonight night against Wyoma (5:45 p.m. at Peabody Mac).
“I want everybody on the team to have at least one moment,” Winthrop manager Jason Rockefeller said. “I think we cleared that off the table. Now we can just go ahead and play ball. It’s a very talented group. Hopefully this continues to keep them loose and ready for the next game.”
The first two innings were scoreless on both sides, making it seem as though Saturday’s game would come down to the wire. Once Winthrop got rolling, however, West Lynn couldn’t stop the scoring.
Joey Rich started the top of the third inning with a single and advanced to third on an errant throw. Petey Silverman singled Joey Rich home for the game’s first run. Robert Rich reached on an error and Marco Beshere followed with a RBI single. A wild pitch scored Robert Rich, bumping Winthrop’s lead to 3-0.
“We worked really hard our last couple practices since our last game Monday (loss to Nahant),” Rockefeller said. “We just got hits in the right places. We were a little conservative the other day with baserunning and today we tried to get those runs we could’ve gotten Monday.”
From there, Winthrop found its rhythm and pushed across eight more runs. Singles from Evan Rockefeller, Mark Johnson, Ryan Gagnon and Silverman scored runs, along with a string of West Lynn errors and wild pitches. That propelled Winthrop to an 11-0 lead through 2 1/2 innings.
“A few bloopers here and it really just inspired the rest of the guys getting up (at-bat),” Rockefeller said. “By the time the pinch-hitters got up to bat they were ready to contribute. It’s a little easier for them to get on with base runners, motivated.”
“It was a pretty obvious outcome when you let them bat around and commit seven errors,” Hannabury said. “It was too much room to overcome. Winthrop played a good game. They played a clean game. That was the difference.”
Winthrop capped its scoring with one more run in the top of the fourth. Matt DeCarney, Winthrop’s starting pitcher, helped his own cause with a one-out single. Two batters later, Gagnon, who pinch-ran for DeCarney, raced home on a wild pitch to push the lead to 12-0.
West Lynn found the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. Eli Christianson started the rally with a double. Ben Marciano’s groundout to short moved Christianson to third base. John DiSaia laced a RBI single, scoring Christianson for West Lynn’s lone run of the game.
“It didn’t work for us this year,” Hannabury said. “Hopefully we’re back again next year and this makes them hungrier. Most of these kids are 12-year-olds so this was their last game. It was a tough way to go out.”
Winthrop’s DeCarney pitched four innings, allowed one earned run and tallied five strikeouts.
West Lynn starter Almani Medina pitched 2 ⅓ innings before handing the ball to his bullpen.