Year to Remember: Amesbury Little League's fantastic summer comes to an end in District 15 Final Four

Jul. 12—BEVERLY — There has been plenty of talent to come through the Amesbury Little League program over the years.

You could go back to 2011, when future San Francisco Giants draft pick Jared Dupere was hammering it all over the yard with future Division 1 golfer Chris Francoeur. Heck, just look at this spring's high school team and what they were able to accomplish, winning a CAL Baker title and the Spofford Tournament while earning the No. 1 seed in the Division 4 state tourney.

They all started in the same place.

And you can certainly expect to see this year's group of All-Stars donning the high school threads in due time. But Monday night, Amesbury Little League saw its summer come to an end with a 5-0 loss to Danvers in the double-elimination District 15 Final Four. With its backs against the wall after falling to Gloucester in its tourney opener over the weekend, Amesbury couldn't get the bats going to extend its season at least one more day.

Still, it was a summer full of memories.

And while there has been a lot of individual talent to come through the program, not too many teams have advanced to the District finals like this year's did.

"Recently we've been successful, but over the course of our program we haven't had many teams that have made the Final Four," said Amesbury coach Leigh Noyes. "So I couldn't have been happier with what they've done. I thought we had a chance tonight, I think we did, and we just came up short. We couldn't get the runs across when we needed them."

It was an especially special summer for Coach Noyes, who got to spend it with his youngest son, Jacob, as the team's leadoff hitter.

And to lead off Monday's do-or-die game, Noyes drew a walk to put the pressure on early. But Danvers starter Wes Maylor was up for the task all night, and got two flyouts and a groundout to end the inning. The righty would make it through 3.2 scoreless innings allowing just one hit and two walks with seven strikeouts.

For a while, though, Amesbury starter Andy Bolth matched.

He worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the first inning with a strikeout and two flyouts to center fielder Landon Mitchell, and was cruising in the second. But with a runner on first and two outs, three straight walks forced in the game's first run before Bolth got a groundout right back to him to end the inning.

Amesbury, however, almost immediately got the run back.

The speedy Mikey Olbrot led off the top of the third inning with a bunt single before stealing second and third. A Noyes walk two batters later put runners on the corners with only one out, but a huge K from Maylor and a popup got Danvers out of the jam.

And that turned out to be a massive momentum shift.

Danvers would go on to score three runs in the bottom of the third to take a 4-0 lead. Anthony Sheehan had a huge two-run single with the bases loaded, and a Dario Santos sacrifice fly plated another. Jack Kusler came on in relief for Amesbury and got the team out of the jam without any further damage. He would pitch the final 3.2 innings of the game allowing just one run with a pair of strikeouts.

"They both did great," said Noyes of his two pitchers. "I couldn't have asked for anything more. We were behind the 8-ball coming into this, and our pitching wasn't the problem, we just couldn't score enough runs. But pitching-wise, we had as many kids as we needed. We had three other kids who would have been ready for tomorrow had we won."

Amesbury's last gasp came in the top of the fifth inning.

With one out, Jack Puorro legged out another bunt single for the team's second hit of the game, and wound up on third after two throwing errors. That brought up Noyes, who fake-bunted on every pitch to draw a four-pitch walk. With the corner infielders in trying to cover the potential bunt, Noyes sprinted for first and immediately turned for second. In the confusion, Puorro thought about breaking for home and took a step before being told to hold up. But unfortunately the Amesbury coach at third touched Puorro trying to get him to hold up, which is an automatic interference out. That was the second out of the inning and negated a 2nd and 3rd, one-out opportunity, and after a groundout the inning was over.

Danvers would add an insurance run in the fifth to make it 5-0, and Amesbury would go in order in the top of the sixth.

Some other highlights in the game for Amesbury were an outstanding bare-handed field and throw to first by Kusler, and a couple of nice assists by shortstop Kai Turner. First baseman Thomas Puorro also made a nice throw home to gun down a Danvers runner at the plate.