The footprint and the tent of the Beverly/Salem Post 331 American Legion baseball program keeps expanding … and the squad keeps finding success.
Some reinforcement from Peabody helped Beverly/Salem enjoy another tremendous season in 2025. Post 331 put together a 14-4-1 overall record, going 12-2 in District 8 regular season play to earn the regular season championship.
Under Massachusetts Legion’s new regional playoff format, Beverly/Salem got to host the double-elimination Region 6 tourney last weekend. Other qualifiers were Northboro, Hudson and the Marblehead/Swampscott Mariners, who finished in third place in District 8 to earn a playoff slot.
Beverly/Salem dropped its playoff opener, 4-3, to Hudson despite Christian Figueria striking out nine batters over five innings of work. That put Post 331 in a must-win situation against their local rivals from Post 57 the following day.
Behind a crafty complete game effort from Thomas Butler (7 innings, five strikeouts and worked around 10 hits), Beverly/Salem stayed alive with a 6-3 victory. Mike Murphy of Peabody hit a 2-run homer in the third inning and ended the day with three RBI while Jake Allen had two hits and scored a pair. Max Silvia, another Peabody native, also went 2-for-3.
That advanced Post 331 to a matchup with Northboro, which was scoreless until the fifth when the visitors busted things open for a 5-1 win. Silvia threw six innings and struck out seven and Allen had a pair of hits, but Northboro held off a potential rally and then fell to Hudson, who emerged from the bracket to advance to this weekend’s state playoffs being held at Holy Cross.
Manager Mike Levine’s crew would have loved to advance to the state finals, but falling a bit short doesn’t dampen the success of a strong summer season.
Figueria, a Lynn Classical star who will play at Wentworth in college, led the team in innings pitches with 26 1/3 while posting a 1.33 ERA. He also had a great summer at the plate, batting .533 over 14 games with nine doubles and 13 RBI.
Beverly’s Micah McManus carried over his incredible high school season by throwing 26 innings for the Legion squad, along with a microscopic ERA of 0.27.
Joining the fray from Peabody was Silvia, who had a 1.96 ERA and also showed off his offensive chops by batting .300. Murphy also gave Post 331 a big boost out of the Tanner City, batting .383 and driving in 11 runs. Jayden Cunningham was another recent Peabody grad that gave Post 331 important innings.
Beverly native Cody Belanger, who played at St. John’s Prep, was another key contributor who hit .317. Out of Salem, Shea Christel was strong defensively and at the plate and Kevin Soto helped out with a homer, five doubles, eight RBI and some valuable mound innings. Butler and Christian Topp helped round out the rotation as well.
The folks at Post 331 continue to get baseball players from any number of cities, towns and different high school programs to bond quickly and come together for a common goal. That’s a rare feat in this day and age — and as long as they continue to do that, the wins will keep on coming next summer and beyond.