Beverly out Foxes Revere, snags playoff win
Jun. 4—BEVERLY — From being 12 years old to now being 12th graders, there's something about the playoffs that brings the best baseball out of the Beverly High's hardball Class of 2022.
Friday afternoon, a crew that made a run to the Massachusetts state Final Four in Little League back in 2016 played what's likely to be its last-ever game on Brother Roberts Field in a Division 1 preliminary round game. They made the most of it.
Beverly jumped out to an early lead and downed Revere, 8-1, to advance to the Round of 32 Monday against No. 10 seeded Braintree (15-5). Senior Nick Fox, one of six Panther starters who played on that Little League all-star team six summers ago, delivered a 2-out, 2-run single to break the seal and the hosts never trailed.
"We had prom last night and we wanted to come out and play well early," said Fox, noting he and his fellow seniors refused to have the senior prom or Senior Week fatigue impact their baseball dreams.
"Our attitude is, why not us? A lot of us were on that Williamsport team and we were here when (the Panthers) beat East Boston last year. We remember what it felt like losing to North Andover in the next round, and that motivated us today."
Now 14-7 on the season, the Panthers rode some outstanding early work by starting pitcher Cooper Gavin. He retired Revere (13-8) on just 13 pitches through the first six outs. The future Brandeis pitcher went 4 2/3 innings, conceding two hits and striking out five to earn his fifth win of the year. He left at the 55-pitch mark, meaning he should be able to throw against the Wamps on Monday if needed.
Anthony Mastrianni, Noah Gunaci and Christian Morrissey finished things out for the hosts, conceding only four hits between them.
Revere's Sal Deangelis led off the third with a single and scored on Mike Popp's RBI single to make it a 2-1 game in the third. Patriot starting pitcher Ollie Svendsen mixed his pitches well and had the Panthers popping up a lot of ball early to keep it close.
"It was a challenge-and-a-half," Beverly coach Jon Cahill said of winning the first state tournament game. "Revere's solid. That pitcher was only a sophomore? He's going to be really good for a long time."
Three walks in the third helped derail Revere's hopes. Those free passes loaded the bags, leading to a sacrifice fly by Austin Bernard and an RBI single by Logan Petrosino to provide some breathing room.
Beverly scored once in the fifth and tacked on two more in the sixth to pull away. In all, the Panthers had 10 hits with seven of those (plus 5 RBI) coming with two outs.
"We talked a lot about the ability to extend innings after the first two outs. A bunch of guys had great at-bats in those situations and that led to runs and even more opportunities," Cahill said.
Fox (4-for-4, 2 RBI) doubled to lead off the fifth and scored on an RBI single by classmate Griffin McCay (3-for-4). A two-out double by Sam Armbruster (2 runs scored) scored Austin Bernard (bunt single) and Fox added an RBI single to cap off the scoring in the sixth.
"We want to hit it 1-through-9. It's a new ballgame every at-bat no matter what the guy in front of you did," Fox said of Beverly's lineup depth.
"I'm up there looking for a strike, anything in my zone. The first three-quarters of the year I wasn't seeing the ball well, was lunging at it. I made some adjustments to my timing and worked on staying back and I feel great right now."
Griffin Francis, Ian Visnick and Josh Demers worked walks and scored for Beverly while Visnick and Armbruster made a couple of nifty plays on the left side of the infield. Beverly was also helped along by its aggressive running game — they stole seven bases, took a few more on balls to the backstop, and of their eight runs, seven advanced in some fashion without the ball being batted into play.
"We've got contact hitters up and down the lineup," Cahill said. "We want to be in position for them when they do come through."
It was technically Beverly's first Division 1 playoff win since 2009, since the program spent the last 11 tournaments in Division 2 (reaching the North final three times and winning once). The Panthers have been to the tourney every year since 2004 and in each of Cahill's three seasons as head coach.
"It's an amazing feeling anytime you can win a playoff game," Fox said. "It was great last year, but this year, being a senior? It's even better."
