Peabody took control early and never looked back, shutting out Swampscott 4-0 on Friday evening at the Stephen O’Grady Field at Forest River Park to win the District 16 12U Little League All-Stars Tournament for the first time since 2019.
The first three batters in the Peabody lineup – Jack Hoolihan, Jaxson Hoffman and Adam Grant – all scored during the top of the first inning, two of them coming home on a Wes Weed single. Peabody tacked on its final run in the second when Lucas Downey came home on an RBI single by Tyler Garcia.
Swampscott starter Archie Packer settled in after the rocky start, striking out six batters over four innings, but the damage had been done. Harry Fitzgerald threw two scoreless innings in relief with two strikeouts and one hit allowed.
“Some resilience there,” Swampscott manager Mike Rossi said. “I think that we started off slow in the first inning and then it kind of carried over to the second inning where they were just hitting us. They were making plays. The ball was just going where we weren’t. Then we settled in really well and we shut them down for the rest of the game.”
Peabody’s Adam Grant turned in a dominant performance on the mound, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts and just two hits allowed. He exited after reaching the 85-pitch limit, and Declan Peterson recorded the final two outs to secure the championship.
Swampscott (4-2) got base hits from Fitzgerald, who singled twice, and Jackson Danahy, but was unable to generate any offense with runners on base.
“The biggest issue, I think, was we just couldn’t get the timely hitting,” Rossi said. “We’d get runners on base and just couldn’t knock them around. It is what it is, you know? That’s baseball. But I’m proud of this group of kids and looking forward to going out on to sectionals with them.”
Swampscott who needed a victory to force a winner-takes-all championship game in the double-elimination bracket, was without injured regular Michael Rossi and had neither Danny Hall nor Cormac Ray available to pitch. Hall had thrown 79 pitches three days earlier in a win over Wyoma, while Ray hit the 85-pitch mark on Monday’s win against Peabody West. Hall and Ray had combined to throw 30 of Swampscott’s 31 innings heading into Wednesday’s final.
Despite the loss, Swampscott reached the district final for a fourth consecutive year and was aiming for a third straight title. Peabody, meanwhile, completed a perfect 4-0 run through the bracket.
On the bright side for the Big Blue, District 16 is hosting the Section 4 tournament this year, meaning both Swampscott and Peabody will advance instead of just the usual winner. The two teams will meet again in their opener at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Forest River Park.
“We start Wednesday, it’s a grind…You play Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,” Rossi said. “What we’re going to do is we’re going to hit the cages tomorrow. When we started this tournament, we did nine days straight, including the games, so I don’t want to overwhelm the kids with a lot of practice, but repetition is what this is about. We want the kids to be ready and prepared for those games, because the other districts are very tough.”
Rossi said the team’s focus heading into the next round remains the same.
“I think we’re staying with our game,” he said. “Throughout the whole tournament, statistically, we’ve only given up 12 runs in six games. So that’s pretty good. Our defense has been pretty stellar. Our pitching has done very well. We haven’t gone through all of our pitchers in the bullpen, so we’re going to have to dip into them because the sectionals are just so many games in a row. But outside of that, we’re just going to try playing our game… Making sure that we’re playing defense, having quality starts, quality pitching, and try to make a lot of noise in that tournament.”
