Articles
English baseball escapes with a win over Saugus
Originally Published on Friday, May 04, 2012
LYNN — The Saugus High baseball team turned what was shaping up to be an exciting comeback into a giveback in a 9-7 loss to English Thursday at Fraser Field.
The Bulldogs were riding high heading into the top of the sixth inning. They led 6-2 and pitcher Matt Burnham was humming along. After spotting Saugus two runs in the first inning, English scored four in the second to take the lead.
Mike Ausiello singled and scored on an RBI double by Joshue Perez. Lucas Harris and Kyle O'Connor reached on back-to-back walks, bringing Matt Merritt to the plate. Merritt reached on an error and a run scored to tie things up. Ben Bowden's sacrifice fly to center put the Bulldogs up 3-2 and an RBI single by Burnham made it 4-2.
English had two more runs in the third inning when Melvin Cabrera singled, advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Ausiello and scored on Perez' second double of the game. Merritt's RBI single scored Perez for a 6-2 English lead.
After going quietly in the fourth and fifth innings, the Sachem bats came to life in the top of the sixth inning. Third baseman Tom Trainor got things going with a single up the middle and Dominick DePesa, who singled in a run for Saugus in the first inning, cracked a double to left field that put runners on second and third.
Catcher Nick Enos grounded out to bring in one run, cutting the English (5-5) lead to 6-3, and Shane Ripley singled to centerfield, putting runners on first and third with one out. A run came in on an error to close the gap to 6-4, bringing up pinch hitter Corey Dominick. Dominick dropped one down the right field line to bring in Saugus' fifth run. English intentionally walked Danny Groark, loading the bases and setting the stage for Pete Pulcari, whose ground ball brought in the tying run. The go-ahead run came on a throwing error on the play.
As it turned out, a one-run cushion in this game was far from safe. In a perfect world hard work pays off, but that wasn't the case. After getting two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the wheels started to come off the wagon for the Sachems (5-6).
Ben Bowden and Matt Burnham walked and Drew Gentile got hit by a pitch to load the bases. After fouling off a bucket load of pitches, Cabrera drew a walk to drive in the tying run, 7-7.
Things went from bad to worse for the Sachems. DiPesa came on in relief of Groark, and walked Ausiello and Perez with the bases loaded to bring in two more runs, giving English a 9-7 lead. Saugus ran out of rallies in the seventh.
"I thought Matt Burnham did a tremendous job," English coach Joe Caponigro said about his pitcher. "He kept his composure. He was throwing strikes. He was cruising going into the sixth inning. We fell apart defensively, He did an excellent job."
Caponigro was also happy with Perez, who had a couple of key hits as the designated hitter. Although English scored three runs in the sixth inning without the benefit of a hit, it took some work.
"We had some pretty good at-bats. We battled up there (at the plate)," Caponigro said.
Saugus coach Tom Gaeta was happy to see his team come back, but wasn't happy with the way it ended.
"I was proud of the way we fought our way back and took the lead, but they fought back too. In the bottom of the sixth, they had the pressure on them and they got the runs across.
English is at Winthrop today. Saugus is at Peabody.
Joyce Erekson can be reached at jerekson@itemlive.com