SWAMPSCOTT — In a pitcher’s duel from start to finish, the North Shore Phillies earned a 2-1 win over the Swampscott Sox Tuesday night in a North Shore Baseball League tilt at Swampscott Middle School.
Phillies starter Matt Burnham threw six solid innings while allowing no earned runs. Burnham allowed three hits while striking out two and walking one batter. Mario Padovani got the save in the seventh while striking out three of the four batters he faced.
“Great job by our starter Matt Burnham,” Phillies manager Chris Carroll said. “An unbelievable job keeping them off- balance and we had a couple key hits.
“We had good defense tonight and a great job by Mario to close it out for us,” Carroll added.
At the plate the Phillies were led by Kurtis White (1-for-2 with two walks and one RBI) who drove in the first run of the game and scored one run as well. Kyle Devin (0-for-2 with a sacrifice fly) also had a RBI.
Junior Santos also had a solid day on the mound for the Sox. Santos pitched all seven innings, allowing two earned runs on three hits while striking out 10 batters.
“A well played game,” Swampscott manager Joe Caponigro said. “I thought Junior Santos pitched a really excellent game for us and defensively we were pretty sound today but we just didn’t have that hitting. You have to hit a little more to win these kind of games and we didn’t do that.”
“Matt Burnham pitched a great game for them,” Caponigro added. “They had one inning where they strung three hits together, I think we may have out hit them but [Burnham] made his pitches and then Padovani came in and did a good job at the end.”
The Phillies got on the board early thanks to a two-out rally in the second inning. A double by Alec Tauro and a single by Dylan Duval, who would steal second, put runners in scoring position with two outs. White then sent Tauro home with a RBI single to put the Phillies up 1-0.
White reached base again in the fifth with a leadoff walk and would later steal second before being moved to third on a ground ball by Mike Griffin. Devin then sent a fly ball to center field that allowed White to tag up and score what would later become the winning run for the Phillies.
The Sox got on the board in the sixth. Esteban Paula, who reached on a single and stole second, would come around to score on an error at third base to cut the lead to 2-1.
With Padovani in to close the seventh for the Phillies, the Sox managed to get a runner on base thanks to an error at second. Sox pinch runner Wilbur Rosario would later steal second base but Padovani struck out the next two batters end the 2-1 victory for the Phillies.
With the win the North Shore Phillies move to first place in the North Shore Baseball League.
“This puts us at 13-2 on the year,” Carroll said. “Right now we’re in a good spot.”