10 Year-Old Little League All Stars rebound strong after tough tournament opener loss

The Swampscott 10 Year-old Little League All Stars responded in unison on Tuesday night with a 12-6 thumping of Pine Hill at Kiley Park in Lynn.  Leading the charge for the Swampscott 10's was pitcher Robbie Vernava who started the game and went 3 innings, but was lifted in the 3rd to keep him eligible to pitch on Friday.  Relieving Vernava, was his regular season teammate- Matthew McIntire, who finished the game throwing a nifty 33 pitches.

Swampscott struck quick in the top of the first- before it was over, the Light Blue put up seven runs to give Vernava a nice cushion to work with.  Nate Stern caught a great game behind the plate & Alex Greenfield & Brendan Sheehan bouyed the infield making some nice plays during the evening.

Swampscott pushed the lead to 10-1 with key hits from Jake Petras, Aiden Hawkins, Quinn Perkins & Brendan Sheehan before things got a little sticky for the local boys in the bottom of the 4th when a couple bloop hits and misplayed balls resulted in 5 runs (3 of them unearned), which brought the score to 10-6 before McIntire retired the side.

That was the end of Pine Hill's  offensive threats and Swampscott tacked on another two runs for a final score of 12-6.

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Swampscott's opener against Peabody Blue in Nahnat on Sunday was a scorcher- literally...... as the 10's battled the Peabody nine in 90+ degree temps that had boys overheating and coaches on both sides taking safety precautions to combat the near unbearable conditions.  Swampscott, jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the 1st with hits from Perkins, Stern & McIntire and with the bases loaded, Michael Hopkins drove a ball to right center which plated two runs.

Peabody tallied a run in the first, another in the second and two in the third to pull within two runs at 6-4 before starting pitcher Nate Stern was lifted due to heat concerns.  The Swampscott bats remained silent from the second through fifth innings, but after Peabody took a 10-6 lead in the bottom of the 5th, Swampscott responded by scoring a run in the top of the sixth and loading the bases for Quinn Perkins who roped a ball over the second baseman's head and was looking to surely knock in a couple runs...... until the Peabody rightfielder came in out of nowhere to not only make a spectacular catch, but also double up the Swampscott runner on first to end the game.

"We told the boys after the game, that's why there's 18 outs in a Little League game......the losing team gets 18 outs before the game is over."  Noted Swampscott Manager Rob Hopkins,  "I give Peabody credit- they kept chipping away and ultimately pulled ahead.  We had a few opportunities to make a play or two in the field to help our pitchers & kill rallies, but we couldn't get it done, and it cost us."

The Swampscott 10's will be playing at Forest River Park in Salem on Saturday night.  They welcome all Swampscott residents to come cheer them on as they take on Nahant at 5:00pm.