Lepore's Grand Slam Leads Off Rout of Danvers Nats

Peabody West has had some very good baseball teams in the past few years, including one which has gone to the Little League World Series. This year’s team is trying to be even better than all those teams.

The all-stars got the Section 4 tournament started with a bang as they cruised to a 22-1 victory in five innings over Danvers National on Wednesday. Nick Lepore hit a grand slam in the first inning and Zach Crawford added 6 RBIs for the victors.

“It’s good to get a lead early in the game because then you can start doing what you want with your pitchers,” said Peabody head coach Ed Aiello.

Peabody got things started in the first inning with a five-run inning highlighted by Lepore’s grand slam. Lepore’s grand slam was the first of his life and it catapulted Peabody to the victory. Danvers’ coach felt his team could have gotten out of the inning with minimal damage, but for a fielding error that hurt the Nationals prior to Lepore’s home run.

“It was technically a 1-0 game in the first three innings, had we played defense,” said Danvers head coach Tom Marden.

After spotting Peabody five runs in the first, Danvers attempted to make the comeback in the bottom half of the frame. With two outs in the inning, Nick Anderson hit a solo home run to make it 5-1. Danvers pitcher Justin Roberto held Peabody at bay keeping it close as the Nationals attempted to make a comeback.

Danvers’ best chance was in the third inning with two runners on base with sluggers Dave Morrill and Anderson coming up, but Peabody starting pitcher Conner Corrigan was able to induce two ground ball outs to get Peabody out of the jam.

Before the game got out of hand, Roberto pitched four innings for Danvers and was able to heat up innings and allow Danvers to not use up too many of its pitchers.

Peabody then broke the game open with four runs in the fourth inning and 12 more in fifth inning before the mercy rule was brought into effect.

Crawford, Jake Doherty, Christian Kukas and Corrigan all added home runs for Peabody to account for the lopsided score.

After the game, Marden had nothing but praise for the kids from Peabody.

“Those guys are terrific hitters and terrific fielders, so it was good to play those guys first to get them out of the way,”

Peabody West went to Williamsport in 2009 and to Bristol for the New England tournament five years ago, and Aiello doesn’t hesitate to compare those teams with his current one.

“Right now, I’d say we’re right on par with those teams.”

For now, Aiello will be looking at Thursday night, when his team will play Stoneham. Danvers will look to rebound quick from its defeat as it will also play on Thursday night against Andover National. The top two teams after pool play will play for the Section 4 championship.