Peabody West Little League Wins NE Regional Tournament Opener

BRISTOL, CT — Cullen Pasterick reached his limit.

Then he finished the job.

The Peabody West Little League pitcher hit the limit of 85 pitches with a 3-0 lead and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning in Monday night's New England Regionals opener against Saco, Maine. Little Leagues rules dictate that a pitcher must leave the mound after facing the hitter he was pitching to when he threw pitch No. 85.

But rather than allow the Maine batter to reach base and leave the final out up to a Peabody reliever, Pasterick induced a game-ending ground ball on that at-bat to seal the 3-0 triumph.

The state champions will next face Connecticut in the double-elimination tournament Thursday at 1 p.m. in Bristol, Connecticut as they moved one step closer to becoming one of two teams to represent New England in the Little League World Series in Williampsort, Pennsylvania.

Monday night's game was broadcast on the ESPN+ app with Thursday's game in the double-elimination tournament slated to be on ESPN.

Pasterick allowed six hits, struck out four and was in command throughout the night. The big hit of the night came off the bat of Brenan Kobierski, who homered over the center field fence with two outs in the third inning.

Peabody West, which advanced to New Englands with a 6-5 victory against Pittsfield American in the state title game last Sunday in Gloucester, took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Jackson Taylor worked a one-out walk, advanced on a Ty Lomasney walk and both scored when Jimmy DiCarlo whacked a two-run double.

DiCarlo also singled in the first inning as he accounted for two of the three Peabody hits on the night.

Pasterick stranded two runners in the second inning and one at third in the third inning after a two-out triple.

Taylor made a sliding catch in center field to help his pitcher work through a one-out fourth.

Maine did manage a leadoff single in the seventh, but Pasterick got a pop up to Kobierski before DiCarlo made a nifty play at shortstop on a tricky ball up the middle to keep the tying run from coming to the plate.

Knowing he only had enough pitches for one more batter, Pasterick then bore down and got the final out to end the game.

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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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