MARBLEHEAD — Marblehead baseball coach Mike Giardi loves the way Jacob Bornstein pitches.
“It’s been his pattern this year to throw strikes, and to throw outs,” Giardi said of Bornstein, who went 6 2/3 innings in pitching the No. 5 Magicians (14-7) to a 5-2 win over No. 12 Burlington in Thursday’s Division 2 North first-round game at Seaside Park.
Bornstein gave up six hits, four of them coming in the seventh inning when he was clearly gassed, and his teammates scratched and clawed their way for five runs in a very well-pitched game on both sides. Burlington pitcher Matt Tyman ran into some tough luck in a couple of innings in taking the loss. He, too, gave up six hits in his six innings, and his undoing was a three-run third inning for the Magicians.
Bornstein had a no-hitter going until the fifth inning.
“He’s not what you’d call overpowering,” said Giardi. “But he gets them out. Burlington only hit a couple of balls hard off him — and both of those were outs.”
On one at-bat, the Red Devils’ Jake McCauly hit a bullet to third baseman Ben Brennan. The only other time a ball was hit hard off Bornstein was in the fourth inning, when, with two out and two runners on, Jake Doyle sent left fielder Brady Lavender on his horse in left field, running away from the plate, to catch a towering fly ball.
As for the Marblehead offense, it took full advantage of its opportunities. Gadot Gaskins led the bottom of the first by getting plunked by Tyman. With Tyman, a lefty, trying for a quick pickoff, Gaskins broke for second and when Burlingtoni couldn’t make a clean play on the throw to the base, the Magicians had a run in scoring position with no one out.
Tyman got the next two hitters by Schuyler Schmitt dumped a two-out single into right field that brought home Gaskins and gave Marblehead a 1-0 lead.
It was a big run, Giardi said.
“We get Gaskins on, and he’s fast, and he’s able to beat the relay throw down to second,” he said. Then we strike out twice. But Schuyler gets the big hit, going the opposite way.
“I thought our (offensive approach) got better and better as the game wore on,” Giardi said. “We didn’t try to pull (Tyman). We took a lot of the balls we hit the other way.”
Marblehead’s big inning was the third. And again, it was opportunistic Magician hitting that paved the way.
With one out, Chris Gally’s slow grounder to third was thrown away, enabling him to reach second. After Erick Gonzalez walked, Schmitt knocked in his second run with a base hit. Lavender followed with a base hit to right that brought home Gonzalez and made it 3-0, with Schmitt going to third. Lavender then enticed Burlington to try to pick him off first, and when Tyman threw over there, he broke for second. The Devils got him for the second out, but in so doing, they allowed Schmitt to score Marblehead’s fourth run.
Scmitt got his third RBI of the day in the fifth when his sacrifice fly scored Gally, who had walked and taken third on a base hit by Gonzalez.
Burlington had scored a run in the top of the fifth when Nick Ponzini’s single drove home McCauley. The Red Devils scored another one in the seventh. Doyle led off with a single and, one out later, McCauley got a base hit. Ricky Vittrem grounded into a force play, but back-to-back singles brought home McCauley.
However, Giardi summoned reliever Ryan Masters, who got the final out. Marblehead is back in action Monday (4), at a site to be determined, against either No. 4 Woburn or No. 13 Beverly in a North quarterfinal game.