Despite taking a lead in the top of the first inning, the No. 8 Peabody Champions simply couldn’t maintain any momentum in a loss to the No. 3 Kingston Night Owls in Game 3 of the North Shore Baseball League finals Tuesday night at Trinity Stadium in Haverhill. With the loss, the Champions now trail 2-1 and face elimination in the best-of-five series.
Chad Martin (1-for-3) and BJ Weed (0-for-2) each recorded one RBI in the loss for Peabody, while Dave Ruggerio (1-for-4, run scored), Mike Giardi (1-for-2) and Chris Mansour (1-for-3) also added hits.
Mike Muscarella got the start on the mound for Peabody and pitched four innings, allowing two runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Mike Gallo ended up taking the loss, pitching 1 2/3 innings of relief and allowing four runs on two hits with two strikeouts.
For Kingston, Garrett Roberts earned the win on the mound after pitching two innings of relief and allowing one run on one hit with four strikeouts. Andrew Hamel got the start on the mound and pitched five innings, allowing one run on three hits with eight strikeouts.
The Night Owls were led on offense by leadoff hitter Nick Comei, who went 1-for-2 with a home run and two RBI. Roberts (0-for-3) and Christian Allaire (1-for-3) added one RBI apiece, while Sean Callahan (1-for-1), Tyler Johnson (1-for-3) and Rob Wirtanan (1-for-4) added hits.
After Peabody took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a RBI fielder’s choice by Martin, Kingston rallied back to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third behind a two-run homer from Comei. Weed’s RBI in the top of the sixth tied the game at 2-2, but Kingston exploded for four runs in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead for good. It started with a RBI single from Callahan to make it 2-1, then the Night Owls continued to pile on until they were up by a comfortable four-run margin.
The Champions were aiming to stave off elimination in Game 4 Wednesday night, which took place at Cooney Field in Beverly starting at 8 p.m.