Beverly - 11, Topsfield - 3

The Beverly Giants (12-11) clinched a playoff spot by beating the Topsfield Tories (4-16) by the score of 11 to 3 Wednesday night at Proctor School.  Frankie Messina pitched a complete game for the victory.  John Boyle was 3 for 4 with a HR, 3B, BB, and 5RBI to lead the offense. Paul Drinkwater, Conor Walsh, and Josh Levesque had two hits apiece. Erik Drown added a triple.

FIELD CHANGE!!!

Due to a Legion playoff game, the Ipswich @ Rowley game tonight has been moved to Georgetown High School, 5:45 start.

Mariners 7 Chiefs 3

The Manchester-Essex Mariners (17-3-1) beat the Ipswich Chiefs (11-8-1) by a score of 7 to 3 at Memorial Field in Essex last night, with Ipswich playing as the home team. The Mariners got on the board first with Rory Gentile hitting a 2 run home run in the top of the 3rd inning, his 3rd of the year. M-E would tack on another run in the top of the 4th on an Adam Philpott sacrifice fly plating Brett Cahill. In the bottum of the 4th after a lead off single by Ryan Montecalvo, Ipswich's Greg Doucette touched up Mariners' starting pitcher, Ryan Marques, for a 2 run bomb to left, bring the Mariner lead to 3-2.
Scoring subsided until the bottum of the 6th, Doucette hit a 1 out single, moved to second on an outfield error then was knocked in by Kevin Michael on a ground ball between 1st and 2nd. A throwing error put Michael on third with 1 out, the Mariners able to get out of the jam by inducing 2 ground balls to 3rd base, leaving the score tied at 3.
In the 7th Manchester-Essex finally got to Chiefs starting pitcher, Doucette, scoring 4 runs on hits by Philpott, Bob Whynott, Gentile, Caulin Rogers and Adrian Frattini. With the score 7 to 3, the Chiefs did not go quietly as they loaded the bases in the bottum of the 7th on hits by Chris Zaremba, Andy Knox, and Montecalvo, but did not push across any runs. Marques went the distance and picked up his 7th win of the season, Doucette pitched well in the loss.
The Mariners host Hamilton tonight while the Chiefs travel to Rowley.

Ipswich and Rowley Tie

Heard thru the ITL grapevine...

Beverly - 6, Hamilton - 3

The Beverly Giants (11-11) took a big step toward making the playoffs by beating the Hamilton Generals  (9-12) 6 to 3 Monday night at Patton Park.  Josh Levesque allowed only 1 unearned run over 6 innings for the win.  Beverly's offense was keyed by back to back home runs in the third inning by Conor Walsh (3 for 4, HR, 2RBI) and John Boyle (2 for 4, HR, 2B, 2RBI).

Austin Michel was charged with the loss allowing 3 runs over 6 innings.

Beverly finishes up the regular season with two road games at Topsfield on Wednesday and Thursday.

Hamilton plays Manchester on Wednesday and Thursday before traveling to Topsfield on Friday.

Rockport sweeps doubleheader against Topsfield - Two Townies announce retirement

Rockport Townies swept the Tories of Topsfield on a foggy afternoon at Evans Field in Rockport. 

Rockport took game one by a score of 13-2.  MacDowell went 6 innings for the win.  In game two, the Townies won 3-2 behind the complete game effort of Brent Currier. 

After the game, both Brent Currier and Jeremy Spittle announced their retirement from the ITL after 15 accomplished seasons. 

Beverly - 7, Ipswich - 4

Sean Martin pitched 6 2/3 innings for the win.  Josh Levesque came on in the bottom of the 7th with 2 out and the bases loaded.  Levesque got a strikeout to earn the save.  Offensively, Chris Brewer had a two run single, and Abel Hernandez had an RBI single to key the offense.

Ipswich's Matt Small had a 2 run homer.  Andy Workman took the loss on the mound.

Manchester-Essex 10 Rockport 8

On a wet, rainy night at Evans Field, the Mariners upended the Townies 10-8.  The game was completed in 5 rain shortened innings.  Rockport managed to make one last rally scoring six runs in the bottom of the 5th, but it was not enough.

Ipswich - 4, Beverly - 0

Generals 7 Tories 0

Hamilton picked up a 7-0 win in a rain/darkness shortened game that lasted five innings Friday night in Topsfield.  Bryan Vitale led the Generals offense with 3 RBI.  Hamilton used a patchwork pitching staff of Luke Painchaud for two innings and got one inning each out of Jack Clay, Mike Chandler and Jim Maloney to notch the shutout.  BJ Weed took the loss for Topsfield.

Rams -2, Mariners -0

Joe White went the distance for the Rams. Ryan Marques  took the loss. The Rams broke a 0-0 tie with 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th. CJ Ingraham, Dmitri Hunt and Koby Thibault all had big hits in the 6th. The Rams are off until Monday when they travel to Ipswich, the Mariners are in Rockport Friday.

Rams 7 Mariners 3

The Rowley Rams handed the Manchester-Essex Mariners there first regular season loss in "the pit" since 2011. D'agistino got the win going 5 strong for the Rams. The two teams meet again in Rowley on Wednesday.

Beverly @ Hamilton Postponed

Tonight's game at Patton is cancelled.  The makeup will be Monday, July 29th.  5:45pm start.

Ipswich over Rockport: 7-2

Ipswich concluded the first season sweep of Rockport in over 20 years last night in Ipswich.  It was a close game until the bottom of the 5th inning when the Chiefs broke it open with 6 runs to take a 7-1 lead.  The inning was capped off by a two run triple by Matt Small that was the longest hit ball at Bialek Park this year.  Ipswich starter Greg Doucette pitched a great game allowing 1 earned run over 6 innings while Chris Lane finished things off with a scoreless seventh.  The Chiefs return to action at the end of the week starting a home and home series with Beverly on Friday in Ipswich and Sunday in Beverly.

Ipswich 14 Rockport 11

Ipswich jumped out to an early 9-1 lead after 3 innings, but Rockport fought all the way back to tie it up at 10 in the bottom of the 6th inning.  Ipswich scored four in the top of the 8th with Rockport managing to get one back, but it was not enough.  Ipswich 14-11. 

More game details to follow...

Rockport visits the reservation in Ipswich tonight. 

Hamilton - 10, Beverly - 2

Luke Painchaud led the Generals to a much needed win over the Beverly Giants Sunday evening at Cooney Field.  Painchaud (7IP, 8H, 2R, 2ER, 1BB, 8K) went the distance on the mound and also added two hits and three RBI at the plate to help his own cause.  Josh Levesque started and went four innings in taking the loss for Beverly.

Hamilton jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the second.  Painchaud (2-for-4, 3B, R 3RBI) got the Generals on the board with a two-out RBI triple.  Dan Curran then walked and Jimmy Parr (2-for-5, 2R, RBI) beat out an infield hit for a RBI single.  Jim Maloney (2-for-2, 2R, 2B, 3BB) then singled to center, which was followed by a Bryan Vitale (4-for-5, 2RBI) two-run single, pushing the lead to 4-0.  Beverly cut the lead to 4-2 in the bottom half on a two-run HR by Pat Doyle.  After Hamilton added another in the top of the third to go up 5-2, Jeff Barricelli made a bid to tie the game in the bottom half but with two on and two-outs was robbed of extra bases when Maloney made a sliding catch on the warning track to preserve the lead.

The Generals then blew the game open in the top of the fourth.  Maloney led off with a double off the fence in left and Vitale singled to center putting runners on the corners with nobody out.  Avon Stewart (1-for-4, BB, 2RBI) walked to load the bases and one out later Andre Painchaud added an RBI single.  With two-outs, little brother Luke then came through with a two-run single extending the lead to 8-2.  Hamilton added two insurance runs in the seventh.  Parr beat out another infield single, Maloney walked and Vitale singled to load the bases with nobody out.  Stewart then delivered a two-run single to round out the scoring.  Luke Painchaud then closed out the game getting back to back strikeouts.

The two teams play again on Tuesday night at Patton Park in another huge game with playoff implications.