9-Year-Old All-Stars Suffer First Loss

The wins had been coming easy to the Marblehead 9-year-old All-Stars, but on Wednesday they fell into a hitting slump and lost their first game of the Wyoma Tournament. The local boys fell to the host team, the Wyoma Blue, 12-6 on Sawyer Field at Gowdy Memorial Playground in Lynn.

Both teams struggled at the plate in the beginning, as the game's first hit didn't come until the fourth inning.

Charlie Young started the game on the mound for Marblehead, and pitched a solid 1-2-3 first inning.

Wyoma was able to score two runs in the second inning though, as Christian Burt and James Wilkins reached home on a combination of walks, passed balls, and Marblehead fielding errors.

Eli Cohen relieved Young in the second and was able to strikeout Brendan Lannon, Matthew Bloom and Katie O'Shea to get out of the inning. Cohen returned in the third, gathering another strikeout and held Wyoma scoreless.

Marblehead was able to gain a run back in the bottom of the third when Jacob Bornstein walked and advanced around the bases on consecutive passed balls and a Wyoma error.

Wyoma broke the hitless game open in the top of the fourth when they came out swinging. After Brian Clougherty walked to first, Burt knocked him in with an RBI-double. Burt was quickly brought home as Wilkins crushed an RBI-triple into the Marblehead outfield.

Marblehead was able to get out of the fourth by way of a 1-6-3 double play that was executed nicely by relief pitcher Jake Miller, shortstop Cohen and first-baseman Spencer Perkins. By that time, Wyoma had plated four runs in the inning, bringing the score to 6-1.

Marblehead got their first hit in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Miller connected for a single. Ryan Dombal followed suit, blasting a ball into the outfield, scoring Cohen and Miller, but he was caught trying to advance to second after his teammates had reached home, which quelled the Marblehead rally.

Miller returned to the mound in the fifth and struck out Bloom and O'Shea to start the inning. The third out was picked up by Bornstein, who charged a bouncing ball on the infield grass and made a sharp throw to first to end the inning.

Marblehead plated another run in the fifth after Charlie Kahn singled and Perkins crushed a deep ball to right-centerfield for an RBI-double. This brought the score to a close 6-4.

Marblehead was back in the game, but Wyoma came out in the top of the sixth and took control of the game for good. The Lynn team exploded for six runs in the inning, backed by a Zack Elwell double, a Clougherty two-RBI triple and RBI-singles from Burt and Wilkens.

A.J. Luciano also scored in the inning for Wyoma, after Chris Gally had come in to pitch for the Marblehead All-Stars. The score was stretched to 12-4 in the top of the sixth, and that proved too much for the Marblehead team. They were unable to counter with a rally in the final half-inning and surrendered their first loss of the tournament.

Their next test will be against the tournament's top team, Wakefield, on Saturday  at 9 a.m.