Sports
MHS Baseball Knocks Off Big Blue
Unearned run put the Headers in the lead, and pitcher Ross Gienieczko slammed the door on the Big Blue with a four-hitter.
Two 11-6 teams met on the Forest Avenue fields Wednesday night, looking to improve their playoff seeding with a win as the regular season draws to a close.
The fact that it was a Marblehead against Swampscott game only spiced up the proceedings.
“Yea, we always want to beat them, it’s always a big game for us,” Marblehead pitcher Ross Gienieczko said after the game. “They beat us earlier in the season (a 5-1 Big Blue win in Marblehead) and we really wanted to take this game.”
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Gienieczko gave up four hits, walked one and struck out seven, pitching a complete game for Marblehead. Included in those seven strikeouts were three in the fifth when the junior punched out the top of the Swampscott order, Frank Legere, Nick Meninno and Mike Walsh. Walsh went down on a called third strike to end the frame.
“We’ve got to play better,” Big Blue coach T. J. Baril said. “O. B. (junior pitcher Sean O’Brien) pitched well and we didn’t pick him up."
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Marblehead went up 2-0 on a Matt Temme homer with Colton Dana on first after a walk in the top of the second.
Swampscott tied it up at two with a single run in the second and another in the third. Walsh knocked in Justyn Fischer Block with a double, and in the third O’Brien helped his own cause with a solo shot over the right field fence.
It was the second consecutive game a Swampscott pitcher homered. Nick Meninno hit a three run shot Tuesday night in a win over Danvers.
The Headers went ahead 3-2 on an unearned run in the fifth. Jake Kulevich came home on an infield error to give Marblehead the lead for good.
Catcher Colton Dana gave his pitcher some more support with a solo homer in the sixth to dead center field to put Marblehead up 4-2.
The Headers scored another two unearned runs in the top of the seventh for their final two runs.
Marblehead only had five hits off of O’Brien, but scored three times on four Swampscott infield errors.
Kulevich and Ryan Stanojev hat singles for Marblehead to go with the homers by Temme and Dana.
Swampscott got singles from Meninno and Matt Videtta to go with Walsh’s double and O’Brien’s homer.
Marblehead hits the field again at home on Saturday for a 4 p.m. start against Gloucester, and on Sunday morning at Seaside Park for an 11 a.m. game against the Salem Witches.
The Big Blue host Pentucket on Saturday night at 7 p.m., and travel to Saugus on Sunday to take on the Sachems at 1 p.m.
