SalemNews.com, Salem, MA
August 5, 2014Beverly blanked by Manchester in postseason opener
By Nick Curcuru
Staff Writer
Staff Writer
---- — ESSEX — The Manchester Essex Mariners are now just one win away from their third straight trip to the Intertown Twilight Baseball League finals, while Beverly is one loss away from elimination.
The second seeded Mariners took care of business against No. 3 Beverly on Monday in the first game of their best-of-three series with a 10-0 shutout win at Memorial Field.
The Mariners can earn a trip to the finals with a win tonight in Game 2 of the series on the road (5:30 p.m.). The winner of the series will move on to the finals to square off with the first place Rowley Rams or No. 4 Ipswich. The Rams took a 1-0 lead in their series on Sunday and had a chance to wrap things up in Monday’s late game.
“You have to come ready to play in this league or you’ll lose and we came to play tonight,” Mariners pitcher Ryan Marques said. “We weren’t playing good baseball at the end of the regular season but tonight we kept them off the scoreboard and got hits up and down the lineup.”
The Mariners were firing on all cylinders on Monday, which led to the lopsided result. Marques turned in a strong performance on the mound allowing two hits over six innings with his defense flawless behind him, while Mike Cain pitched a scoreless seventh to finish the contest. Offensively, the Mariners scored in each of the first three innings and never looked back.
Nate Bertolino made it 1-0 Mariners in the bottom of the first inning when he doubled in Rory Gentile, who singled.
The Giants did not help themselves in the second inning as a walk, a balk and an error loaded up the bases. The miscues led to two more Mariners runs on a sacrifice fly from Mike Cain, that was just a few feet away from being a grand slam, scoring Bob Whynott and a Bertolino RBI single scored Ray to make it 3-0 through two.
The Mariners plated two more runs in the third on a Giants error and a Ray RBI single to make it 5-0.
But it was the fifth inning where the Mariners really broke the game open, plating five more runs to essentially finish off the Giants chances of a comeback. Ray and Peter Clark each had RBI hits in the frame while the Mariners scored two more runs on wild pitches and another on a fielding error to cap the scoring at 10-0.
Ray and Bertolino powered the Mariners offense with a pair of hits and a pair of RBIs each, while Paul Crehan and Gentile each scored a pair of runs. Conor Walsh led the way for Beverly with two of hits team’s three hits.
“It was a good effort from the entire lineup,” Marques said. “We got on base, kept them off base and played really well in the field. We got on them early and we didn’t let up. We have to take care of business (tonight) to win the series. (Beverly) is a good team, especially at the plate, so we will need to bring a strong effort again.”
The Mariners will send Clark to the hill tonight with hopes of clinching a spot in the finals.
