Peabody West Turns Table on Wyoma, Forces 1 More Game [VIDEO]

The Peabody West All-Stars extended their season another game with a 12-6 pounding of Wyoma at Volunteer Field in Lynn Thursday night.

Both teams now have one loss and the two teams will square off for the third time to decide the District 16 championship Friday night at 5:45 p.m., once again at Lynn’s Volunteer Field.

Peabody West (7-1) handed Wyoma (5-1) its first loss of the playoffs with Thursday night’s victory. The two teams , Wyoma winning 5-3 in nine innings.

“I told the boys we were going to win tonight before the game, and I told them we’re going to win Friday night,” Peabody West manager Ed Aiello said after Thursday’s game.

Aiello has been coaching youth baseball in Peabody for over 20 years. In 2006, his team made it to the Northeast Regional in Connecticut as the number one seed, before getting knocked out by Connecticut. Peabody beat Connecticut handily in the opener in 2006, but couldn’t beat them twice.

Things started off rough for Peabody West and its starter Zack Crawford. Wyoma pushed across two runs in the top of the first before Crawford whiffed Sean Dean for the third out.

The game stayed at 2-0 until the bottom of the second, with two outs and the bases filled with Peabody West runners. Leadoff hitter Nick Palma crushed a grand slam off Wyoma starter Herbie Newton to put Peabody up 4-2 after two full innings. Jake Doherty, Nick Lepore and catcher Christian Kukas came home in front of Palma.

Wyoma came right back in the top of the third, tying the game up at four on three consecutive singles. Once again Crawford got tough on the mound and struck out two to get out of the inning.

Peabody West blew the game open with four more runs in the bottom of the third. Crawford helped himself, greeting new Wyoma pitcher Brendan Powicki with a double to center, plating Anthony Ianuzzi, who pinch-ran for Chris Gillen and Conner Corrigan. Crawford came home on a single up the middle by Lepore, and Matt D’Amato drove home Kukas, who reached on a fielder’s choice.

Peabody West would never trail again, much to the delight of the hundreds of Peabody partisans circling the field in lawn chairs and standing with their faces pressed against the fence.

Not all the drama was on the field Thursday night. A foul ball along the first base line struck a 70-year-old Peabody fan in the eye and nose, knocking him to the ground. Lynn Police and EMTs arrived quickly on scene and took the man to the hospital.

The lead grew to 9-4 in the bottom of the fourth. Mark Ginetti was hit by a Powicki pitch and came home on a shot into right field by Lepore, and Peabody West was up by five, needing six outs to finish off the boys from Lynn.

Wyoma would not make it easy, scoring twice off Crawford before he was lifted in favor of Jake Doherty. Doherty struck out Dean, and Peabody West was three outs away from its seventh win of the tournament.

The lead ballooned to 12-6 in the top of the fifth: Matt D’Amato, pinch-running for Rob Murphy who walked, came home on a single by Ianuzzi. Ianuzzi came home behind Palma when Corrigan singled sharply into left field. Peabody West had a six-run lead, needing three outs to end it.

Doherty punched out Andrew Kraemer and Brendan Morris before leaving in favor of Ianuzzi in the sixth. Ianuzzi was the third Peabody West hurler of the game and got leadoff hitter Nick Paveri on a called third strike and the playoffs were extended another game.

“I told the boys good game tonight, get some rest tonight and tomorrow, we’ve got batting practice at our place Friday at 3 p.m., and then we’re back here to play for the title,” Aiello said.

“We scored a lot of runs, but we need to play better, and we will play better Friday,” Aiello said.

Palma is taking that charge to heart, certainly.  

“I have confidence in my team, we know how to win and we’re gonna win Friday,” he said.

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