As the days wind down toward the opening day of the spring season, the Peabody and Lynnfield baseball teams took advantage of a beautiful Saturday morning at Lynnfield High to squeeze in one last preseason scrimmage.
While the Pioneers’ bats came alive late to seal a come-from-behind 9-5 win in nine innings, the day wasn’t about who won or lost. It was a final chance to assess the talent before Tuesday’s beginning.
“Joey Smith threw well and Cam Connolly threw well, and we swung the bats OK and cut down on our strikeouts,” Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt said. “Our pitch selection has to be a little bit better, though. I saw guys swinging at some bad pitches and I saw guys taking good pitches. So, we have to get better at that, but that will come with time.”
Lynnfield head coach John O’Brien’s takeaway was about the same.
“The kids hit the ball once we got warmed up, but I still think some of our earlier kids took too many pitches,” he said. “Which isn’t something we like to do. “We left some guys on base early in the game. I think we had the bases loaded twice when kids were swinging at pitches they shouldn’t have been swinging at. I think they were trying to do too much maybe.”
Senior captain Cam Connolly, Dylan Annese, Joey Smith and Jayden Cunningham shared pitching duties for Peabody and did well, according to Bettencourt, who added unfortunately, they didn’t get as much help as he’d like to see defensively with too many errors, most of them throwing.
“We teach ‘don’t miss high,’ and what do we do? We miss high and that’s got to be corrected or we’re going to have problems,” Bettencourt said. “Our accuracy on our throws is important in any good defense. Our throws have to be accurate and today we had too many that weren’t.”
For Lynnfield, which followed up with an 11-inning scrimmage against Lexington, senior captain David Tracy, junior captain Tyler Adamo and Matt Papagikos handled the pitching against the Tanners. O’Brien said that, overall, he was pleased with the Pioneers’ pitching.
“We had up to 14 kids who pitched today and they all held their own, so I’d have to say the day went very well,” he said. “It was huge for us to play a clean first game. My kids threw strikes and their kids threw strikes. The kids showed up and worked hard. We had some lapses and they paid accordingly, but, overall, we only walked three batters in 20 innings, so I have to be happy about that.”
O’Brien said Charlie Morgan had a good game, in terms of both baserunning and his outfield play.
“He really ran the bases well and made a couple of nice catches in the outfield. He’s very quick on the bases and is a terrific kid,” O’Brien said, who added sophomore Drew George “looked pretty good behind the plate.”
Against Lexington, sophomores Ben Dahlstedt and Luke Disilvio and juniors Walt Radulski and Madux Iovinelli split time on the mound. Iovinelli was dominant. In three innings, he struck out six and threw just 28 pitches.
“He was unhittable and had a great breaking ball,” O’Brien said. ” Dahlstedt (4 strikeouts), Radulski (3) and Disilvio also just threw strikes, which is key.”
Half of the Lynnfield JV squad suited up against Peabody, with the other half doing likewise in the afternoon scrimmage against Lexington. All told, the Pioneers played 20 innings.
“We want to make sure they all get some live reps and action,” O’Brien said. “I think this morning, every kid got at least two at-bats and a few, maybe, got three. It’s just a great way to let the kids try to do what they can to impress. The pitching was pretty good all day, especially considering we only walked three kids in 20 innings. The key there was that the kids threw strikes.”
Bettencourt acknowledged that baseball is a game that sometimes “takes some time to get going.”
“Baseball is a funny sport that way,” he said. “You start out the season in freezing cold weather and the kids are really that ready.”
As of Saturday, Bettencourt had not decided who the Tanners’ opening-day pitcher would be.
“We have to break down today and then see where that goes before deciding,” Bettencourt said.
