Townies edge Mariners in Game 3, fight off elimination
By Nick Curcuru
Sports Editor
Over the last two seasons, the Rockport Townies have always risen to the occasion in elimination games, playing their best with the season on the line.
Wednesday’s Game 3 of the Intertown Twilight Baseball League Finals was no different.
The Townies needed a win to keep the series
going, and they did just that with a 5-4 victory at Memorial Field to cut the Mariners lead to 2-1 in the best-offive series. Rockport is now6-0 in elimination games over the last two seasons.
Game 4 shifts back to Evans Field in Rockport on Saturday (4 p.m.). If the Townies can fight off elimination again on Saturday, a winner-take-all Game 5 will be played on Sunday back at Memorial Field in Essex (4 p.m.).
“We definitely made the series a little more interesting tonight,” Townies manager Jay Pallazola said. “We were just clutch when we needed to be, pitching, defense and hitting wise.”
It was a back-and-forth game all night and tied, 4-4, entering the seventh inning when the Townies took the lead for good.
Mike Emerson and Jordan Pallazola drew backto- back walks with one out in the frame. Emerson then attempted to steal third base and the throw to the bag sailed into
the outfield, allowing him to score to give Rockport a 5-4 lead.
Starter Jason Vizena finished the job in the bottom of the seventh, working around a two-out error to preserve the victory. The Townie’s south paw allowed two earned runs in seven innings of work, scattering seven hits.
“Jason is a guy that we haven’t used a ton this year and he really stepped up when we needed him tonight,” Pallazola said. “He contained a strong offense on their home field and hekept the ball in the yard. That’s what hurt us in Game 1 but he didn’t make a ton of mistakes tonight and the defense made plays behind him.”
The Mariners broke out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Adam Philpott’s grounder on the infield scored Caulin Rogers, who led off the inning with a single.
Vizena, however, pitched out of the jam withoutfurther damage, and his team evened up the score in the next half inning.
Keady Segel laced a one-out single, stole second base and then came in to score from second on a Dylan Maki single to make it 1-1 after two.
“That was a big sequence,” Pallazola said. “If (the Mariners) can get another run or two in the first, it would have been a big momentum builder for them and really bad for us. But we were able to get out of the first only allowing a run and we tied it up quickly in the second. It was huge for us mentally.”
The Townies went on to take a 2-1 lead in the third on a Jordan Pallazola solo shot. But Philpott drove in Rogers again in the bottom of the frame to tie the score at two, this time with a base knock.
Alex Webb’s two-RBI single in the fourth plated both Maki and Kyle Nelson to put the Townies ahead once again at 4-2. The Mariners, however, had another answer when a Rogersground ball to short scored
Peter Clark to make it 4-3 after four. Johnny Wilcox then singled in Rory Gentile in the fifth to tie the score again at 4-4.
