Despite a complete game from senior pitcher Jami Ford, the Swampscott High School baseball team’s season came to an end on Monday with a 4-2 loss against Danvers High School in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) state tournament Round of 32.
The Big Blue led from the first inning to the final inning. In the seventh, Danvers put together a string of timely hits to come from behind to take the lead.
In the fifth and sixth innings, Ford worked his way out of trouble, stranding men on base while Swampscott held on to their close lead. He struck out 10 Danvers batters over the course of the afternoon.
“All year he was our horse,” said Head Coach Joe Caponigro of Ford. “He had seven victories for us this season and was true to form today. We just made a couple of mistakes, and that’s what happens.
Leadoff hitter and centerfielder Connor Chiarello led the Big Blue offense with two base hits and a run scored.
With the Big Blue leading 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, Isaiah Baries hit a high fly ball down the left field line. The ball was misplayed by the Danvers left fielder and landed in fair territory for an RBI double to give the Big Blue a 2-0 lead.
While trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, and down to their last chance, Swampscott showed some life as Cooper Correnti walked and Chiarello reached base with just one out, but the Big Blue couldn’t bring the baserunners home as Danvers shut the door.
“The end of the season when you lose a group of seniors, that’s what I find extremely sad,” said Caponigro. “This group, we had 11 seniors. A lot of them started playing for us in the eighth grade on the freshman team.”
Caponigro said seeing the disappointed demeanor of his players after the game was a tough pill to swallow.
“I hate seeing them like that,” he said. “We wish we could have continued at least another game for them. They’re a great bunch of kids and they’re going to do great things in their lives.”
Despite the disappointing loss, Caponigro said he’ll remember the team’s successful regular season fondly. The Big Blue took home the Northeast Conference Championship for the first time since 1997.
“I’m told it was the most regular season wins (17) for the program since 2003,” said Caponigro. “This team went on a run. I think we won 12 in a row at one point. The kids knew how to win, and they battled. I’m proud of them. We had a lot of games like this where we came back in the last inning, but today wasn’t our day.”
