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Defensive miscues hurt Beverly in loss to Peabody

Monday, April, 14 By Jean DePlacido
Correspondent

PEABODY | After months of wondering, the Peabody High baseball team finally knows what they'll be up against each and every time they take the field in Northeastern Conference play this season.

After watching his team eke out a 7-6 home win over previously unbeaten Beverly in their first-ever NEC contest, Tanners' head coach Mark Bettencourt knew he had just seen a preview of what's to come the rest of the spring.

"This is the type of game we're going to be in for the rest of the season," said Bettencourt. "Teams won't be intimidated by Peabody | and we won't be intimidated by them.

"Beverly is a very good hitting club and kept coming back. We were both doing everything we could to get runs, and it was a relentless fight."

The big key for Peabody (3-1) on this day was that it played errorless baseball. The same couldn't be said for Beverly (also 3-1), which made for miscues behind its ace pitcher, left-hander Jack Leathersich.

"We made too many mistakes defensively, and to their credit they took advantage of them," said Panther coach Dave Wilbur. "We've been hitting the ball well and playing good defense | until today, when Peabody's defense was a lot better. I am pleased with the way we battled back the whole game, but can't afford those errors."

Beverly had 11 hits on the day and allowed only six. But Peabody's stellar defense prevented the Panthers from doing excessive damage on offense.

"Our defense made a big difference; I think that's because we practice every situation," said Peabody senior captain Pat Yeo. "When it happens in a game we've already seen it 100 times in practice."

The Tanners shot out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Danny Mello led off with a single and Kevin Skop doubled. James Noftle's infield grounder scored Mello, and Skop later came home on a wild pitch.

The Panthers came right back against Skop, Peabody's own left-hander, to tie it up in the top of the second. Leathersich led off with the first of his two doubles, designated hitter Paul Drinkwater singled, and Sam Cohen's grounder scored a run. Freshman Joe Wioncek then delivered an RBI single up the middle to tie it up.

Peabody used some small ball to take the lead for good with two more in the second. Yeo led off with a shot off Leathersich for a hit, advanced on Tommy Ciulla's bunt single and later scored on a wild pitch. Ciulla went to second on the wild pitch, over to third on Marc Finocchio's sacrifice bunt and came home on an infield out by Jared Shields.

Those two runs proved to be huge as the Panthers kept chipping away. Skop wasn't nearly as sharp as he was last week in his team's 5-4 opening game win over St. John's Prep, struggling in and out of jams yesterday after retiring the side in the first.

The Panthers added a run in the fourth on Andy Brown's bases loaded sacrifice bunt before Skop bore down to get Conor Walsh to ground out to end the inning. Yeo got hold of a fastball and doubled to deep right-center, plating Noftle with what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the fifth.

Beverly then rallied with three in the sixth, knocking Skop out of the box. Pinch hitter Frank Messina started things off with a bloop single and Wioncek worked a walk to set the stage for No. 9 hitter Zak Levine, who ripped an RBI double.

When pinch hitter Peter Kallas came through with a two-run single, Skop gave way to closer Pat Dumas, who retired all six batters he faced to secure the win. Dumas was helped by Yeo, who made a nice running catch on a deep fly ball to center by Chris Freni and came very close to doubling Kallas off first.

"That fly ball stayed up long enough for me to get to it," said Yeo. "This was a real battle, but that's what we expected."

Levine and Leathersich each had two hits for Beverly while Walsh, Freni, Drinkwater, Brian Skerry, Messina, and Wioncek had one each.

Leathersich is now 1-1 on the season after taking the loss. He was charged with all seven runs on six hits, didn't walk a batter, and struck out six. Junior Matt Lanza came on in the seventh to retire the side in order.

For the 3-1 Tanners it was a team effort with Yeo collecting a pair of hits while Mello, Josh Band, Skop, and Ciulla all hit safely. Band drove in two runs with a clutch single in the fourth and made several good plays at shortstop.