The Gloucester baseball team is in midseason form.
A young Fishermen squad struggled early on in the season, dropping their first five games while breaking in new starters at every position on the diamond but one. After Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Peabody, however, Gloucester now finds itself at 4-7, winners of four of its last six contests.
“I knew this team had some potential and it’s good to see them starting to settle in as a team,” said Gloucester head coach Rory Gentile, who picked up career win No. 50 on Wednesday. “They’ve been working their tails off at practice and it’s good to see them show today that the work we do in practice pays off in game.”
It was a pitcher’s duel at Nate Ross Field with Gloucester righty Giacomo Martell and Peabody lefty Cam Connolly both pitching well enough to win.
Martell was efficient all afternoon, pounding the strike zone with all of his pitches. He finished the game with a complete game shutout on five strikeouts while allowing just three hits with only two walks. Peabody did not see a runner advance to third base all afternoon while the Fishermen played error-free defense behind the sophomore right hander.
Third baseman Ryan Francis was rock solid and saw a lot of work, while Jaylen Severino made a big running catch in the gap in left center to take extra bases away from Joriel Tolentino in the second inning.
“Giacomo has really pitched well in his last three starts, we give him much support in the first two but we did today,” Gentile said. “Today we made plays and he rolled to a complete game with only 70 pitches. He threw strikes and attacked every hitter.”
Connolly got the tough luck loss as he kept his team in the game all afternoon with five strikeouts on nine hits in a complete game effort.
“Cam pitched well enough to win today,” Peabody head coach Mark Bettencourt said. “But tip your cap to (Martell), he was aggressive and came after every batter, I think we had only one or two hard hit balls all night. We created a lot of our own problems, we had runners in scoring position early we just didn’t put together enough competitive at bats.”
The Fishermen went up 1-0 in the bottom of the first when Ryan Francis singled in Jackson Hakes, who singled. Connolly kept the Gloucester bats at bay until the fourth inning, when a Charlie Amero single and a Jason Earl walk put two runners on for Severino and the leadoff hitter delivered the biggest hit of the game in the form of a three-run homer to left for a 4-0 Gloucester lead.
“Hitting with runners in scoring position has been an issue for us so it was great to see Jaylen come up big in that spot,” Gentile said. “We’ve been putting runners on base all year so it was good to get those timely hits to bring them home today and Giacomo took care of the rest.”
Gloucester had chances to extend the lead but Connolly made some clutch pitches and right fielder Josh Sigmon cut down two runners at the plate with perfect throws from the outfield in the fifth inning. He also made a sliding grab on a looping fly ball in foul territory to quell a potential first inning rally for the Fishermen.
“We made some plays in the field to keep it at four,” Bettencourt said. “Cam and the defense kept us in it but you want those defensive plays to preserve leads not to keep us within four runs. We just didn’t put the ball in play competitively enough today, not enough hard hit balls and he squandered a good game on the mound.”
Gloucester was led by Charlie Amero’s three hits at the dish, Severino had a pair of hits including the big home run while Zach Morris also had a multi-hit game. Connolly, Tolentino and Noah Crocker had the hits for Peabody with Connolly’s fourth inning double being the lone extra base knock.
The Tanners are right back at it on Thursday at home against Beverly (4 p.m.). Gloucester goes to Marblehead on Friday (4:30 p.m.).
Gloucester 4, Peabody 0at Nate Ross Field, Gloucester
Peabody 000 000 0| 0
Gloucester 100 300 x| 4
P: Oliveri, CF 3-0-0; Petro, 2B, 3-0-0; Connolly, P, 3-0-1; Crocker, 3B, 3-0-1; Tolentino, SS, 3-0-1; Sigmon, RF, 2-0-0; Andino, PH, 1-0-0; Porcella, 1B, 2-0-0; Brunet, C, 2-0-0; Silva, LF, 2-0-0. Totals, 24-0-3.
G: Severino, CF, 3-1-1; Hakes, DH, 3-1-1; Toppan, PH, 1-0-0; Morris, 1B, 4-0-2; R. Francis, 3B, 2-0-1; B. Francis, SS, 3-0-0; Montagnino, LF, 2-0-0; Smith, PH, 1-0-1; Amero, RF, 3-1-3; Earl, C, 2-1-0; Mello, 2B, 1-0-0; Simendinger, PH, 0-0-0. Totals, 25-4-9.
RBI, P, none; G, Severino 3, R. Francis.
WP, Martell; LP, Connolly.