Sports
Serpa Blast Powers Hamilton-Wenham Past Ipswich, Into Next Round
The Hamilton-Wenham Little League team beat the Ipswich All-Stars 12-2 on Thursday to move to the second round of District 15 Williamsport Playoffs.
Only a few days removed from Independence Day, the Hamilton-Wenham Little League squad put on a fireworks show of their own on Thursday night.
The Generals (3-1) blasted the Ipswich LL All-Stars 12-2 with stellar defense and hot bats at the Amesbury Little League Complex on Thursday night.
The home team Generals got the scoring started early by tallying four runs off of a few misplays by the Ipswich defense. Ipswich starting pitcher Alex Morris struggled with his control from the start, allowing two of the four runs to score via wild pitches.
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Hamilton-Wenham struck again in the second, quickly getting the first two men on base with singles. Generals’ starting pitcher and clean-up hitter Nico Serpa brought everyone home with one swing of the bat, sending an 0-2 pitch over the wall in deep right field for his third homerun of the tournament.
Ipswich (1-3) managed to score a run in the top of the third with consecutive doubles from two of their starting outfielders, making the score 7-1 Generals.
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The Generals bats were quiet until the bottom of the fourth when Serpa came up to bat following a double off the wall by Mikey Gillis. Serpa swung at the first pitch he saw and cranked it over the centerfield wall into a small crowd of Hamilton-Wenham fans for his second homer of the night.
The home team tacked on another run in the fourth to make the score 10-1.
Ipswich loaded the bases with one out in the top of the fifth hoping to even out the score. However second baseman Nick Cutler made a nice stab on a hard-hit grounder before turning an unassisted double play to end the inning.
The crowd breathed a sigh of relief as the Ipswich rally was limited to a sole run.
Hamilton-Wenham scored two more runs in the bottom of fifth with hits by Ben Danforth, 3-4 in the game, and Cutler.
Due to the ten run “mercy-rule” in the Little League rulebook, the game was pronounced over before the full six innings had been played.
With the win, the Generals moved on to the second round of District 15 pool play. They will have two games starting this weekend in which they will need to win to move on to the District Championship on July 15.
The second round starts this Saturday when the Generals play Amesbury at the Danvers American fields at 11 a.m.
