Peabody West Little League To Play For World Series Spot Friday

BRISTOL, CT — The Peabody West Little League team remains one victory away from becoming the first Massachusetts team to play in the Little League World Series since the program itself last accomplished the feat 16 years ago.

Peabody West missed on its first chance to stamp its ticket to Williamsport, Pennsylvania on Thursday when it came up short in a 7-4 loss to Manchester, Connecticut. But the Massachusetts state champions will get another chance at an automatic World Series berth on Friday when they play New Hampshire at 1 p.m. on ESPN.

Because of the coronavirus health crisis, international teams are not participating in this year's tournament, which means two teams from each region will get to go to Williamsport. Connecticut earned one of those two spots Thursday with the victory in the battle of the two undefeated teams left in the New England region.

The winner of Friday's Peabody West-New Hampshire game will play for the New England title on Saturday, but both teams will advance to Williamsport regardless of that game's outcome.

Things got off to a great start for Peabody on Wednesday as it struck for three runs in the first inning. Jimmy DiCarlo led off with a walk, Aidan Horgan reached on an error and after a wild pitch, Cullen Pasterick plated DiCarlo with a sacrifice fly. Brendan Kobierski then drilled an RBI single and Ryan Skerry and Jackson Taylor worked walks with Kobierski scoring on a wild pitch.

DiCarlo pitched out of a two-on, no-out jam in the second, but Connecticut was able to get back two runs in the third for a one-run game. The big blow came in the fourth inning when Connecticut pitcher Jacob Budarz launched a two-run home run over the center field fence for a lead.

Connecticut extended its advantage to 7-3 in the top of the sixth before DiCarlo's RBI triple pulled Peabody within three in the bottom of the inning for the final score.

Peabody is now 1-1 in Regionals after a 3-0 victory against Saco, Maine on Monday.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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