RallyNorth.net

Mon, Apr 07, 2008 04:00 PM @ St. John's

Team	Final
Peabody	5
St. John's	4

Peabody baseball shades St. John's Prep

Monday, April, 07 By Jean DePlacido
Correspondent

DANVERS -- Mark Bettencourt's philosophy is for his Peabody High baseball team to play quality competition in the regular season because the Tanners will be seeing good teams in the postseason.

Thus, Peabody looks forward to playing St. John's Prep. Of course, it's even better if you beat the Eagles.
Timely hitting and solid pitching by senior Kevin Skop gave Peabody a 5-4 victory over previously unbeaten St. John's Prep yesterday at Gibbons Memorial Field.

The Tanners had a 5-2 lead, but the Eagles answered with two runs in the bottom of the sixth and left the tying run on base in the seventh.

"I'll take it," said Peabody coach Mark Bettencourt. "This is why I scheduled St. John's to throw my guys into the fire. Everyone says the Prep is very strong. I wanted them to face that caliber team right out of the gate. It is a challenge to come to their field with their fans heckling us. There is pressure playing them here, and I am very pleased with the way our guys responded."

Peabody, playing its first game of the season, managed to bear down to get out of a jam in the bottom of the seventh with speedster Derek Coppola, representing the tying run on second base. Reliever Pat Dumas struck out Chris Carmain on a full-count curve ball for the second out, and catcher Trevor Manzi, who had singled his previous two times up, grounded to first base. James Noftle booted the ball, but stayed with it and threw to Dumas covering the bag to get the final out on a very close play.

"You can see that a routine ground ball isn't an easy out in the seventh inning with the tying run on," said Bettencourt. "Luckily, we were able to get that out or it is all tied up. We bent but didn't break, and I think our experience helped a lot. We didn't panic when things didn't go our way."

Skop worked six innings to get the win, allowing four runs on eight hits, two walks, one hit batsman and struck out one. He wasn't overpowering but was consistently around the plate and mixed his pitches well.

"I had to rely on my off-speed stuff because my fastball was up," said Skop, a crafty southpaw, who has moved into the No. 1 spot now that Kyle Multner is gone. "I was a little nervous at first, but after we scored two runs to tie it up it was a whole new ballgame. I knew I couldn't let my teammates down."

Bettencourt called the performance typical of what he expects to get from Skop all season.

"He will give you everything he has each time out," said Bettencourt. "He's not a strikeout pitcher but relies on finesse, getting batters to pop the ball up or pound it into the ground. We were a little shaky defensively, but I saw good things today. This was the first game for Danny Mello in almost two years (because of injury) and he responded very well (as the leadoff batter/third baseman)."

The Eagles came into the contest with a 2-0 record and got on the board in the first inning when Peter Castoldi walked and later scored on an RBI hit by Danny Haugh. After Coppola doubled, Carmain's infield out plated Haugh.

Skop pitched four scoreless innings before St. John's tacked on two more in the sixth on singles by Manzi and Chris Welch, and Peter Neal beat out a bunt to load the bases. Castoldi's sacrifice fly plated one and another run scored on a wild pitch.

Prep senior starter Jordan Edgett went six innings, giving up five runs (two unearned) on seven hits before Mike Yastrzemski took over in the seventh. Peabody nicked Edgett for two runs in the second to tie it up, capitalizing on two errors by the Eagles and a hit batsman.

They added a pair in the fourth when Marc Linehan scored on Pat Yeo's infield out and another run came home on a wild pitch. Tyler Hopping knocked in what proved to be the winning run when he doubled to the base of the fence in centerfield to drive in Gary Girolamo, who had also doubled.

"We had our chances and any hit to the outfield would have scored Coppola in the seventh," said Prep coach Pat Yanchus. "Peabody swung the bat well, and I think we were swinging too hard at times | looking for the home run. There were some well hit balls, but right at people | a few inches to the left or right and we might have won. Edgett pitched well, but he didn't throw enough strikes. All three games we've played so far have been very close."