Swampscott - The Swampscott Little League 10-11-year-old All-Stars won the District 16 championship for the second consecutive year with an 8-7 victory over Wyoma on July 19 in Revere.
Swampscott moves onto the state’s Sectional- 4 tournament and will face Weston (the winner of the District 13 tournament) on Friday night in Swampscott at 5:30 p.m.
“We lost to Wyoma Saturday, 6-0, so this was a do-or-die game for both teams,” said Swampscott manager Lou Olivieri. “We had some issues early on in the game, but our guys came back with some gutsy performances to come from behind and then hang onto the lead.
“I’ll tell you what, that Wyoma team is very, very impressive, and they will be a force in District 16 for the next couple of seasons,” Olivieri added. “I’m just really glad we won’t have to play them again — and I’m not sure we’ll see a team down the line that’s as good as them.”
Wyoma jumped out to an early lead and was leading 5-4 in the top of fourth inning before Chris Murphy hit his second home run of the post season, a two-run shot to deep left center field, to give Swampscott a 6-5 lead it would never relinquish.
“Chris pitched a heck of a game. He only gave up three hits through four innings, and then came through with probably the biggest hit of our post-season run,” said Olivieri. “He never hit a homerun until All-Stars, and now he has two – awesome!”
Adrian Espinal came in to nail down the save with two innings of clutch relief.
“Adrian showed all of us what kind of kid he is and how tough a competitor he really is,” Olivieri said. “Wyoma came out shooting in the bottom of the sixth inning and eventually had the winning run on second base with two outs, but the kid really buckled down and got Wyoma to hit a ground ball to our second baseman for a routine out.
“We were one hit away from a walk-off loss,” Olivieri said, “but our pitching is our strength and it’s nice to have kids who don’t give in to the pressure.”
Swampscott got some offensive punch from Donnie Weisse, Jack Fitzpatrick, Ben Rossman, C.J. Howard and A.J. Venuti, and some great base running from Louis Olivieri and Leo Wile.
“Our kids know that everyone has to contribute for us to win, and that’s what we’ve gotten throughout the District 16 tournament and they all know that’s what we’ll need if we want to move to the state finals. All 13 kids have a role, each one has strengths that can help the team win, and if they work hard who knows how far we can go,” said Olivieri. “But I’ll tell you what – I wouldn’t sell this group short.”
