Sports
Meninno's the Word For Big Blue Baseball
Swampscott junior hurler beats Danvers with his arm and his bat in 9-4 win Tuesday night on Forest Avenue.
Junior Nick Meninno had a rough first inning on the mound Tuesday night, the Falcons scored three times for an early lead.
Meninno settled down, allowing one run over the final six innings, and he blasted a three-run homer and the Big Blue had an impressive 9-4 win over Danvers.
The Falcons (15-4) were coming in off a nice 7-4 win over Marblehead on Monday, and were looking to improve their playoff seeding with a win and a series sweep over Swampscott (11-6).
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Ray Arocho, Nick Gikas and Zach Ryan came home in the first, staking Falcon starter Connor Kelleher to a three-run lead before he tossed a pitch.
Kelleher made short work of the Blue in the first, but was touched up for two runs in the second when Trevor Massey knocked in Matt Videtta with a double off the centerfield fence, and Frank Legere singled bringing home Justyn Fischer-Block.
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Legere led the Big Blue attack Tuesday night; the junior outfielder went 4-5 at the plate, part of a 14 hit Swampscott attack off three Falcon pitchers.
Swampscott tied it up in their half of the third. Justin Perry singled and Tommy Keenan came in to run for him. Chris Lockwood replaced Kelleher on the mound and was greeted by an opposite field single by Fischer-Block that drove in Keenan with the tying run.
The Falcons took the lead right back when Nick Valles drove home Greg Little with a single to left-center. Little started the inning with a single to center off Meninno, one of eight Danvers hits on the evening.
Swampscott evened things up in the fourth, knocking Lockwood out in the process. Zach Ryan came in and gave up a single to Perry that drove home Meninno from third. Meninno had reached to start the inning when he was hit by a pitch.
The walls came down for Danvers in the fifth; Swampscott scored five times, the big blow, Meninno’s blast with Legere and Fischer-Block aboard.
“It got away from us in that inning (the fifth),” Danvers coach Roger Day said after the game. “We’ve got to throw strikes, and we didn’t and Swampscott capitalized, that’s a good team on that side.”
“Nick (Meninno) battled,” Big Blue coach T. J. Baril said. “He made some adjustments after the first and really hung tough until we could score some runs for him.”
Both teams are right back on the diamond Wednesday; Danvers hosts Gloucester, and Swampscott hosts Marblehead under the lights.
Danvers nipped the Blue, 2-1 earlier in the season, when the balls weren’t jumping off the bats.
“We had a tough loss on Monday against Winthrop, and it was nice to come right back with a solid game and a win,” Baril said.
“We tried a few different things today, some worked, some didn’t,” Day said. “We have to play better going forward.”
Danvers and Swampscott have both qualified for the 2011 baseball state tournament.
