BOXFORD — Maybe it was destiny for the Masconomet and Gloucester baseball teams to face each other on more than one day this season.
For the first time in a few years, the Chieftains and Fishermen only have one contest scheduled between them. They’ll meet twice, however, after Wednesday’s Northeastern Conference seesaw battle was suspended due to darkness tied at 8-8 headed to the ninth inning.
The game will resume sometime in the near future (TBA); both teams play again on Thursday, and forecasted rain could threaten a potential weekend resumption. When it is scheduled, play will pick up where it left off in Boxford, with Gloucester batting to start off the top of the ninth.
“It’s a little weird,” said Gloucester coach Rory Gentile, whose team is 8-1 and faces Salem at home Thursday. “You’re excited to keep playing, but you also wish you could have finished the job (today).”
Masconomet (3-5) had a chance to walk off victorious in both the seventh and eighth innings. Two-out singles by Drew Nelson in the seventh and Davis Deluties in the eighth followed by stolen bases put the winning run in scoring position, but both times Gloucester’s Nico Alves bore down to retire the side. In the eighth, he did so with the winning run 90 feet away after Deluties took third; Alves fielded a hard ground ball back to the mound for the final out in Wednesday’s twilight.
“Nico kept us in it,” Gentile said. “He did a great job.”
Gloucester seemed to be in command after jumping out to leads of 3-0 and 8-3. Masconomet turned to freshman pitcher Jacob Safronas in the third, and he wound up hanging five consecutive zeroes to keep his team in the game.
“Jacob’s an example of the fluidity in our program. He played the field in a JV2 game earlier this week and we called him up today in case we needed pitching,” said Masconomet coach Bryan Duplissie. “He stepped up in a huge way. He threw strikes. The way he pitched, I couldn’t be prouder of him.”
The Fishermen’s three-headed pitching monster of Brayden Francis, Giacomo Martell and Alves is well known around the NEC. Not many teams will face all three in game this season, which was the spot Masconomet found itself in.
Martell started for the Fishermen and went four innings, scattering five hits but walking six. Gloucester turned to Francis for one frame, then went to Alves in order to keep Francis eligible to go against Salem on Thursday. The Chieftains took advantage of an error and then got a 2-run double from Drew Gustafson in the fourth to get back into the game at 8-6.
The hosts then tied it up in the fifth when back-to-back singles by Chris Porfido and Cruz Zizza led to Porfido coming home on a wild pitch and Zizza scoring on a Nelson fielder’s choice RBI.
“Our mantra all year has been ‘Compete at the plate’,” said Duplissie, whose squad hosts Peabody Thursday. “We had some good at-bats and clawed our way back in.”
Five consecutive walks issued by Masco starter Gustafson plated three Gloucester runs in the second inning, but Masco rallied immediately with RBI by Vinny DelGrosso, Nelson and Cal Weidman to make it 3-3. The Fishermen came alive in the third, though, as back-to-back doubles by Nolan Aiello and Martel touched off a five-run inning punctuated by a 2-run Francis double.
“We did what we needed to do to knock out their ace,” said Gentile, “and then we just kind of stopped playing. It was a bad brand of baseball by us, especially offensively, in the later innings.”
Lukas Albano singled and scored twice for Gloucester while Gavin Cooper also scored a pair and Matt Smith had a hit.
For the Chieftains, Gustafson delivered three hits and Liam Ginley had a pair of runs scored.