The Swampscott 12U All-Stars capped a grueling three-game stretch with an 8-2 victory over Wakefield on Friday evening in the Section 4 Little League Tournament at Stephen O’Grady Field in Salem. Despite the win, Swampscott was eliminated from championship contention on a tiebreaker after Peabody defeated Danvers National 4-2 in the late game.

Swampscott, Danvers National and Peabody all finished the round-robin stage of the tournament with identical 2-1 records, while Wakefield went 0-3. The three-way tie was broken by runs allowed per defensive inning, a formula that left Swampscott on the outside looking in. 

“I’m very proud of them,” said Swampscott manager Mike Rossi. “I feel like they were very resilient. Coming into this, we did lose the district, and we didn’t win the first game here, but we didn’t force anything.”

Swampscott, playing its third game in as many days, jumped on Wakefield early and never looked back. Eleven of the team’s 12 batters reached base as the Big Blue offense broke out after managing just one run in a loss to Danvers National the day prior.

“We had a lot of timely hits,” Rossi said. “Something I’ve been preaching this tournament a lot is timely hitting. It’s something we haven’t been getting and tonight we did.”

Owen Jordan led the way with two singles, an RBI, and a run scored. Danny Hall added a single, drove in a run, and scored, while Max Knauer chipped in with a single, a walk, an RBI, and a run. Jax Dudevoir, Harry Fitzgerald, Nate Sakurada, and AJ Carter each delivered RBI singles. Cooper Averett reached base twice with a single and a walk and scored two runs. Andrew Postizzi and Jackson Danahy both reached base and scored, and Archie Packer worked two walks and came around to score as well.

“Our pitching has been so great this whole tournament, keeping us in games at points,” Rossi said. “But today we really turned it on as far as offense went. I thought everybody from one through twelve was hitting the ball very well, which is great to see.”

On the mound, Cormac Ray delivered a dominant start, striking out 10 over 4.2 innings while allowing just one run on four hits and two walks. He exited after reaching the 85-pitch limit.

“Cormac just did an amazing job,” Rossi said.

Fitzgerald entered in relief but walked four batters without recording an out in an inning disrupted by mound issues that required attention from the grounds crew. Max Knauer cleaned things up, recording the final four outs and striking out two.

For Wakefield, Frankie McPherson and Dylan McGrath each drove in a run, with McPherson providing an RBI single. Dom Portelle started and allowed six runs over 3.2 innings, with Zach Rocca and McPherson finishing the game.

Had Swampscott advanced and won the Section 4 title game, it would have marked the program’s first trip to the state tournament since 1998, when the team reached the state final before falling to Newton North, 5-3.

Though they fell short of a spot in the Section 4 final, Rossi said the team had plenty to be proud of. 

“We’re over a month into this and we’ve literally had three days off,” he said. “I’m proud of the kids for how far we’ve come.”