Rowley-16, Topsfield-1

Rowley used a 9 run 2nd inning to back up another strong outing from Nick Liguori(5 INN, 0ER, 7K, 1BB, 5H). Offensively the Rams were led by Koby Thibault's 4 hit night while Ralph Renzulli and Chris Esposito both had 3 hit nights. Rogers started for Topsfield and Hatfield led the way offensively with a pair of doubles. The two teams meet again Friday night in Topsfield.

Injury Update

After being moved from Beverly Hospital to Beth Israel last night, Joe Esposito returned home early this morning. Due to severe swelling, surgery is now scheduled for next week at Mass Eye and Ear where he will have 3 fractures of his orbital bone repaired. Will update next week.

Mariners 10 Chiefs 0

Mariners 10 Chiefs 0 (Monday)

The Manchester-Essex Mariners defeated the Chiefs 10-0 last night in Ipswich. Nine different Mariners contributed atleast one hit with Alex Ray (3-4), Joe Orlando (3-4) and Nate Bertolino (2-2) leading the way. Ryan Marques (7IP 11K 0BB 0R) picked up the win.

Matt Small, Andy Knox, and Doucette each had a hit for the Chiefs. The two teams meet again tonight in Essex.

Rockport 16 Hamilton 0

The Townies scored 16 runs on 14 hits to beat the Generals by a score of 16-0 on Tuesday evening in Rockport. The starting nine for Rockport recorded at least one hit a piece. Mike Emerson supplied a grand slam into the woods to cap off a 16 run evening.

Matt Sharon records the win going the distance for Rockport, while L. Painchaud received the loss for Hamilton.

Rockport travels to Hamilton on Thursday.

Rowley - 11, Beverly - 5

Rowley took an early 8-0 lead after one inning on their way to the win. More details to follow...

The Beverly Giants wish Esposito well.

Mariners and Chiefs split series

The Mariners and Chiefs come away with a split after each team won on the road this week. On Monday night the Mariners jumped out to an early lead and hung on thanks to a dominating pitching performance by Marques. He gave up three hits in a complete game shut-out leading Manchester Essex to a 10-0 win. The Mariners had a balanced offense with hits coming from the entire line-up.

The Chiefs were able to even the series last night with a 5-2 win in Essex. Another great Pitching perfromance led the way, this time by Chiefs pitcher Greg Doucette. He gave up three hits on his way to a complete game win with 5 k's. Andy Knox (1-3, BB, SB, 2 RS) and Kevin Michael (2-3, Sac) led the offense for the Chiefs each getting on base twice and Montecalvo had two RBI's. Derek Deranian had a big hit for the Chiefs in the 6th driving in the go ahead run and Matt Scabelli made the defensive play of the game for Ipswich with a diving catch in the 6th robbing Orlando of a hit with two men on base.

Both teams are looking forward to the Holiday weekend and resume play on Tuesday July 5th.

Injury Update

Rowley center fielder Joe Esposito was taken from Cooney Field to Beverly Hospital in an ambulance tonight after fouling a ball off of his right eye in the top of the 7th. Joe is in Beverly Hospital for the night with surgery scheduled for tomorrow to repair a fractured orbital bone. Here's to a full and speedy recovery for Joe. Updates on his progress will follow.

Mariners @ Generals Make-Up Game

Monday, July 25th @ Patton Park. 5:45pm start.

Topsfield forfeits at Beverly

The Giants improve to 5-5 as Topsfield could not field 9 players.

Mariners/Generals Rained out

makeup TBD

Rams/Chiefs Rained Out

In one of the worst decisions in baseball history the Rams and Chiefs were rained out after playing 2 innings Wednesday night. Makeup date TBD.

Beverly vs Hamilton Makeup Date Announced

Beverly and Hamilton will play their makeup game on Tuesday, August 2nd at Cooney Field at 5:45PM.

Beverly vs Hamilton July 17th Game Time Changed

This game has been moved to 1PM to accomodate a Sr. Babe Ruth tournament. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Beverly at Topsfield Postponed

Makeup Date TBA.

Mariners Walk-Off Winners behind Cain HR

Manchester/Essex defeated Hamilton 5-4 Tuesday night in Essex on the strength of a Mike Cain walk-off HR in the bottom of the seventh. The Mariners took a 4-0 lead after two innings and the score remained the same until the top of seventh due to the strong pitching of lefthander Adam Philpott. In the seventh, the Generals rallied for four runs off Philpott to tie the game highlighted by a game-tying three-run HR off the bat of Bryan Vitale. With two outs in the bottom half of the inning, Cain came through with his solo HR to right-center to end the game.

Pierro recorded the final two outs in the top of the seventh to earn the win. Luke Painchaud took the loss for Hamilton in relief. Connor Sullivan started for Hamilton and pitched six solid innings in his season debut.

Rams - 8, Chiefs - 1

Rowley defeated Ipswich 8-1 Monday night. Mike Sloban(5INN, 4K, 2BB, 2H) got the win while Thibault, Renzulli and Andrew Barba all had multi hit games for the Rams. Mcarthy was the pitcher of record for Ipswich with Hernandez and Deranian contributing hits. The two teams meet again Wednesday in Rowley.

Generals Sweep Tories

A night after picking up a win at Patton Park, the Generals faced the Tories again. Hamilton defeated Topsfield on Friday night at the Proctor School in a five inning affair. Luke Painchaud and Judd Funchion toughed it out on the hill, both pitching on back-to-back nights. Tim O'Leary hit a three-run HR in the first inning and Jim Maloney stroked a grand-slam in the second to pace the Generals' attack. Jeff Jensen provided a spark at the top of the Generals' lineup reaching base four times. Zack Lampkin had a RBI double for the Tories.

Beverly - 12, Ipswich - 11

The Beverly Giants (4-5) beat the Ipswich Chiefs (2-4) in a wild high scoring game at Linebrook Field Friday night.

Beverly took a 7 to 2 lead into the bottom of the 4th inning when Ipswich stormed back with a 5 run inning topped off by a game tying 2 run single from Hammond to knot the game at 7.

After a scoreless top of the 5th Ipswich put up another 4 runs in the bottom half of the inning. The big blow was a 2 run triple from Kevin Michael. Beverly's fortunes changed when Brendan Fullerton came on in relief with the bases loaded and 1 out. Fullerton induced a grounder back to the mound and a strikeout to get out of the inning without any more damage.

Before the start of the 6th the umpire said it would likely be the last inning. Trailing 11 to 7 Beverly rallied for 5 runs. The first 6 batters of the inning reached base with 5 scoring. The game was tied on an RBI triple off the bat of Erik Drown. Sean Mitchell put the Giants ahead with a run scoring single over the third base bag. Drown came on in relief for the bottom of the 6th and earned the save. Fullerton was credited with the win.

Beverly's offense was led by John Boyle (3 for 4, 3B, 2B, 3R, 4RBI) and Fullerton (3 for 4, 2B, 3R, 2RBI). Derek Scialdone, Nick Adams, Sean Mitchell, and Brian Chirco all contributed 2 hits.

For Ipswich Anthony Hernandez (3 for 5, 2B, 2RBI) and Michael (2 for 3, 3B, 3RBI), led the offense.

Rams - 6, Mariners - 0

A night after battling to a 6-6 tie, the Rams came out on top 6-0 behind Nick Liguori's ( 7Inn, 5H, 1BB, 7K) complete game shutout. The Rams offense was led by Kyle Leblanc's 2 hits and 4 RBI. Cain went the distance for the Mariners while Gentile, Graham, Bertolino, Buckley and Bell all had hits. The Rams are off until Monday when they travel to Ipswich and the Mariners are off until Tuesday when they host Hamilton.

Beverly - 10, Hamilton - 8

Beverly 10 Hamilton 8

Beverly defeated Hamilton 10-8 Tuesday night at Patton Park. Dan O'Connor went five innings to get the win for the Giants, while Jim Love took the loss going six innings in relief for the Generals. Patton Park's fence was recently put on the disabled list due to wind damage suffered in the recent storms, leading to new ground rules at the park.

John Boyle put the Giants up 1-0 in the top of the first with an absolute bomb to RF off of Generals' starter Cam Charette. The blast struck a spectator of the nearby little league game in the side of the neck, and would have easily been a two run HR if Patton Park's fence had been in place. Boyle had to settle for an RBI ground-rule double and an arrest warrant may be out on him for his assault on the innocent bystander.

Hamilton answered with four runs in the bottom of the first. Three straight singles started the game leading to backstop Bryan Vitale's sacrifice fly to tie the game. Mark Ruggerio followed with a two-run double and Luke Ransom later delivered a blast to left-center which probably would have cleared the fence. Instead Ransom settled for a ground-rule double giving the Generals a 4-1 lead after one.

Charette left the game after one inning due to shoulder soreness and Love was forced into relief duty. Beverly plated five runs in the third to take a 6-4 lead. Derek Scaildone and Erik Drown had RBI hits to lead the Giants' offense. Hamilton attempted to answer in the bottom of the fourth, but with two-on and two-out Boyle tracked down a fly ball off the bat of Jim Maloney just to the right of the gazebo in centerfield for the third out end the Generals' rally.

In the fifth the Giants extended the lead to 9-4 highlighted by a mammoth homer by Drown that landed halfway across the pond in left center. Brendan Fullerton added a solo HR into the base of the willow tree in the sixth to give the Giants a little insurance. Hamilton cut the lead to 10-8 by scoring four in the sixth. Provost had a RBI double, Maloney followed with a RBI single and two more runs later scored on a wild-pitch sequence. However, Drown came in to slam the door on Hamilton pitching the final 1.1 innings and striking out four, while earning the save.

Rockport 11 Ipswich 5

Townies over Chiefs 11 to 5 in Ipswich on Monday night.

Rockport 8 Ipswich 4

Rockport Townies beat the Ipswich Chiefs 8 to 4 on a damp night at Evans Field.

More details to follow...

Mariners take 2 from Tories

The Manchester-Essex Mariners beat the Topsfield Tories 10-4 on friday night, following a Topsfield forfeit on Tuesday to improve their record to 4-2 on the season. The Mariners were led by 2 home runs off the bat of Brett Cahill and a solid pitching performance from Brandon Bell (5IP 2ER). Topsfield was led offensively by BJ Weed and Andrew Dyer.

Hamilton @ Beverly Postponed

The field is unplayable.

Rockport 20 Beverly 8

Rockport Townies beat the Beverly Giants 20-8 on Friday night at Evans Field. Rockport and Beverly combined for 35 hits and 28 runs in a game that lasted close to three hours.

Offensively for Rockport, Erik Juncker (5for5, 2B, 2rs, 3rbis), Derek Osmond (3for6, 4rs, rbi), Bro. Currier (3for5, 2B, 2rs, 2rbis), Mike Emerson (2for3, 3rs, rbi,), Tom Robertson (2for5, 2 rbis, sb) and C. Ressel (3B, 2 rbis). For Beverly, Boyle (HR, 2B, 4rbis), Drown (HR, 2B. 2rbis) and Haratunian (3 for 4, 2B, 3rs) were the standouts.

Matt Sharon went the distance fo Rockport to get the win. Gill got the loss for Beverly.

Beverly plays Hamilton today. Rockport faces Ipswich in the first of a home-away series.

Ipswich @ Hamilton Postponed

Last night's game was postponed due to the weather. Make-up TBD.

Rowley - 10, Rockport - 0

The Rams beat the Townies 10-0 behind an 8 run 4th inning and a solid complete game win from Nick Liguori(7 inn, 2H, 3BB 7k's). On the offensive side for Rowley, Ralph Renzulli led the way with 4 hits and 2 RBI while Kyle Leblanc(2 for 2, SB) and Chris Esposito(2 for 3, RBI) also added multi hit games. For Rockport, Smith started and took the loss, while Brent and Brock Currier contributed the hits. Rockport hosts Beverly Friday night while Rowley is off until Tuesday when they travel to Essex to take on the Mariners.

Rowley - 17, Beverly - 5

The Rams held a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 6th where they plated 12 runs. Oconnor started for Beverly and pitched well, into the 6th. For Rowley Mike Sloban got the win going 6 innings and Tim Moore finished up the 7th. For Beverly Adams had a hit and an RBI and Williams added a hit, 2RBI and an SB. For Rowley, Chris Esposito had 3 hits, 3 runs and 2 RBI, Kyle Mcelroy had 2 hits and an RBI and Jordan Silva added a hit and 2 RBI. Rowley hosts Rockport tomorrow at Eiras and Beverly travels to Rockport this Friday night.

Ipswich 8 Topsfield 4 (Friday June 3rd)

Ipswich jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the 1st and never looked back. Matt Roberts and Gardy O'Flynn both had two run singles in that frame. Greg Doucette pitched 6 strong innings as the Chiefs played flawless defense led by shortstops Ryan Montecalvo's nine infield assists. BJ Weed pitched well in relief for the Tories.

Hamilton 5 Ipswich 1

Hamilton 5 Ipswich 1

The Hamilton Generals defeated the Ipswich Chiefs by a score of 5-1 Monday night in Ipswich. Luke Painchaud improved to 2-0 on the season going the distance while allowing an unearned run on four hits while recording eight strikeouts. Kevin Michael pitched well in defeat going five innings allowing four runs (three earned) and stuck out nine.

Hamilton carried a 1-0 lead into the top of the fifth when they plated three runs to stretch their lead. With one out leadoff hitter du-jour and acting manager Reginald J. Maidment singled and advanced to third on a double by Mark Provost. Jim Maloney walked to load the bases for clean-up hitter Bryan Vitale, who delivered a ground-rule double to right knocking in two. The next hitter, Mark Ruggerio, muscled a sacrifice fly to center giving the Generals a 4-0 lead.

In the sixth, Provost provided some insurance with a sacrfice fly pushing the Generals' lead to five. Ipswich answered with an unearned run in the bottom of the inning courtesy of two errors and a double steal in which Anthony Hernandez (2 hits) stole home.

Painchaud's defense was solid behind him except for the two miscues in the sixth. The outfield turned in a few rangy plays and cut down a runner at the plate in the sixth. However, the star of the game was undoubtedly Painchaud, who painted the corners all game and walked only one batter. The Chiefs visit Patton Park on Thursday at 5:45 for a rematch.

Rowley 12 Rockport 4

Rowley Rams (5-0) beat the Rockport Townies (3-3) by a score of 12-4 on Sunday evening at Evans Field.

Joe Katin got the win going 5 innings, striking out 8, walking 4, while surrending two runs on 1 hit. Mike Emerson took the loss going 4 innings, allowing 3 runs on 2 hits and some poor defense behind him. Emerson left the game after warming up prior to the start of 5th inning with an injury to his right elbow. His status for the rest of the season is still being determined.

For Rowley, the offensive stars were abundant as they banged out ten hits. Silva, Bolla, J. Esposito and Luisi all collected two hits, while Renzulli and Leblanc each collected one. For Rockport, Mike Anderson and Brock Currier each hit solo shots into the woods.

Rowley and Rockport face off again on Wednesday evening in Rowley.

Beverly - 5, Manchester - 3

The Beverly Giants (2-3) beat the Manchester Mariners (2-2) by the score of 5 to 3 Sunday night in Beverly. Manchester led 3 to 1 in the bottom of the 5th when the Giants finally got to starter Ryan Marques for 4 runs to take the lead.

Joe Gill allowed only 3 runs (2 earned) over 6 innings while striking out 7 for the win. Erik Drown pitched a perfect 7th for the save. Offensively, Beverly was led by John Boyle (2 for 3, HR, 2B, RBI), Kevin Harutunian (2 for 3, 2B, RBI), and Derek Scialdone (1 for 2, 2RBI).

For Manchester, Marques allowed 5 runs over 5 inings and took the loss. Brett Cahill (1 for 3, 2RBI) and Rory Gentile (0 for 2, 2R, 2BB, SB) led the offense.

Mariners 9 - Giants 7 (Tuesday May 31st)

The Manchester/Essex Mariners defeated the Beverly Giants by a score of 9-7 on Tuesday night at Memorial Field in Essex. Southpaw, Steve Stout (5IP 0 ER 3K 1BB 4H) picked up the win for the Mariners in his first action since last year's finals.

Whit Graham (3B, RBI, BB), Rory Gentile (2B, 2 RBI, 2 BB, SB), and Mike MacFarland (1B, 2B, RBI, BB) all had clutch hits for the Mariners. The Giants were led by Sean Mitchell (2-4, 2 2B) and Eric Drown (2-4, HR).

Rams Shutout Generals, 7-0

Nick Ligouri was the story on the mound picking up an impressive win for the Rams at Patton Park. The Generals couldn't manage much off him as he struck out 11 batters over just 5 innings of work. Jensen was charged with the loss for the Generals.

On the offensive side, the Rams were led by LeBlanc as he was 3-4 on the day with 2 HR, 3 RBI. Renzulli and Luigi also had HR's for the Rams.

Hamilton @ Rowley Postponed

Due to water on the infield and the forecast for tonight Hamilton v Rowley will be rescheduled. Makeup date TBD

Ipswich 5 - Topsfield 2

Ipswich beat Topsfield in their home opener on Monday night at the new and improved Bialek Park. Kevin Michael set the tone for the Chiefs with a impressive performance logging his first win and complete game for the 2011 season. The Chiefs offense did just enough as some timely hitting edged them past the Tories who hung around all game. More details to follow....