Peabody West 9-Year-Olds Capture District Title

The nine-year-old all-stars from Peabody West continued the league’s legacy of championship teams, taking home the District 16 title Monday night against Saugus American, 9-0.

“Tonight’s final in particular saw an outstanding pitching performance by Jake Murphy: six shutout innings of three hits,” said Peabody coach Ed Silva after the game.

Saugus American was able to get its first runner of the game to third base, but no one got close after that. On the last out of the game, a Saugus base runner tried for third, but Peabody right fielder Jake Paragona fielded the ball and relayed over to second baseman Mike Silva who fired off to third baseman Angelo McCullough for the out.

Peabody West scored two runs in the bottom of the first with RBIs from Jenarro Herbert and John Mulready, followed up by another run in the second inning by Dylan Doucette. He led off with a double and crossed the plate on a pass ball to make it 3-0.

Peabody then added five runs in the fourth inning and kept Saugus from scoring for the remainder of the contest.

The victory and the championship followed on the heels of a perfect season – the Peabody all-stars went 7-0 in the regular season and clinched both playoff games, trouncing Wyoma 11-0 before ending Saugus’ run in the tournament.

“In the nine games, we scored ninety-nine runs and gave up only twelve. Pitching and defense [were] our mantra all tournament and it paid off,” said Silva.

Before Monday’s final with Saugus, Peabody had beaten the club in the regular season 20-8, according to Silva.

He said his club was led in the tournament by pitching from McCullough, Murphy and Joe Gilmartin.

“McCullough went the distance in the semi-final win versus Wyoma and Murphy went the distance tonight versus Saugus American – quite a feat to pitch six innings in under seventy-five pitches,” Silva said.

Mulready, a catcher, was also a force behind the plate, throwing out six of seven stolen base attempts.

Silva praised the work of Herbert, Mike Silva and Doucette at the plate, packing a punch in the middle of the lineup.

He said outfielders Mike Sabella, Jack Flaherty, Ari Rozopolous, Paragona and Dana Tennent “did a great job,” giving Peabody West the distinction of being the only team to prevent even a triple hit by its opponents.

He said the infield went error free in the playoffs with Murphy, Gilmartin, Silva and Herbert “locking down the infield” with Mulready behind the plate.

In addition to Silva, Brian Herbert, Jerry Murphy and John Mulready coached the team to a title.