BEVERLY — The Peabody High softball team was retired in order in the top of the first inning. The same thing happened in the seventh and final frame Thursday afternoon.
Sandwiched in between, though, the Tanners and host Beverly Panthers each put forth an offensive display that resulted in double digits for both clubs — and an end result that wasn’t secured by the hosts until Ella Campos caught the final out via a 1-6-3 grounder.
Thanks in large part to senior captain Gabbi Wickeri, the Orange-and-Black held off their Tanner City rivals for a 12-10 victory. Wickeri went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a game high four RBI, three of which came on a three-run homer in the bottom of the first.
“I just want to barrel the ball and see where it goes,” the 18-year-old Wickeri, who will continue her career at Ithaca College, said afterwards. “I’m a good hitter and have power, so as long as I make good contact, it’s got a real chance to go out.
“I don’t normally get a lot of good pitches to hit,” she admitted, “but I stayed patient with two strikes and when that one came in, I said ‘Oh my goodness; here’s my chance.’ It looked as big as a watermelon coming in.”
Wickeri, who threw a complete game to upset Marblehead the day before, came in relief in the fifth inning Thursday and helped stave off a potential comeback, keeping the Panthers (9-2 NEC, 11-4 overall) tied with the Magicians atop the Northeastern Conference Dunn Division standings. She struck out two of three Peabody hitters in the seventh, which turned out to be the only two batters that fanned the entire day.
“I’ll do whatever my team needs me to do,” Wickeri, pitching for injured ace Lidia Miedema, said. “As a two-time captain, I want to step up and show my teammates that we’re still the Beverly Panthers and we can make a long (playoff ride), that we have the talent.”
Beverly, which never trailed, banged out 15 hits against a pair of freshman pitchers from Peabody. They needed every one of their dozen runs, however, because the visiting Tanners never stopped battling back.
Three times Peabody got to within one run, the last of those coming in the top of the sixth inning when Lizzy Bettencourt launched a mammoth home run 40 feet past the fence in center field for her 10th round tripper of the season, cutting her team’s deficit to 11-10. But Beverly center fielder Meredith Johnston made a great defensive play by cutting down a Tanners’ runner trying to take third base later in the inning, ending their final threat.
“I 100 percent loved our fight,” said Peabody (7-10) head coach Steve Lomasney, whose team starts five freshmen regularly. “We’re averaging nine runs a game and came in hitting .378 as a team, so we feel like we’re never out of it. I kept telling the girls coming off the field, ‘Let’s limit the damage and keep coming back, keep coming back.’ We just came up a little short today.”
Senior captain and cleanup hitter Elsa Reulet had a two-run single during a five-run second inning for Beverly; she also scored twice. Ella Campos, a junior, also had a two-run single in that frame and wound up with three RBI total in addition to going 3-for-4. Leadoff hitter Sophia Balducci scored three runs and added a pair of hits for the Panthers, and starting pitcher Jasmine Feliciano was 3-for-3 with a walk out of the No. 2 spot in the lineup, scoring twice.
Johnston added two hits and an RBI to the Beverly cause, while catcher and No. 8 hitter Katherine Tsmounis delivered a clutch RBI single in the bottom of the sixth, restoring the hosts’ two-run lead. She also shined behind the plate catching.
“I’ve done the math for years and figured out if we can score nine runs a game, we should win,” Meghan Sudak, the long-time Beverly head coach, said. “Plus, we’ve scored a lot of runs with two outs this season. Kids are coming up with big hits and big times.””
Peabody scored three runs in the second to make it 4-3; plated six runs in the fourth to cut it to 10-9, and Bettencourt (2-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI), who is hitting close to .600, made it a one-run game again with her sixth inning moonshot.
Jess Stead, who made a spectacular catch in center field, added two hits, including an RBI triple, scored once and drove in one; freshman shortstop Taylor King, Jaelyn Emerson, Liv Guarino (2 runs) all had RBI hits; and eight of nine Tanner starters scored at least one run.
“We knew they could hit … and they can really hit,” Sudak said of Peabody “Next year, they’re going to be really, really dangerous.”
“Our future is really bright. We’re definitely excited for next season and the year after,” added Lomasney.
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