LOWELL -- No.1 seed Masconomet had a 17-game winning streak and all the momentum, but No.3 Beverly had Spencer Brown and that proved to be more than enough last night at LeLacheur Park as the Panthers topped the Chieftains, 3-1, to capture the Div. 2 North title. The feisty senior went the route on the hill fanning 10 and scattering just four hits.
“There was no way I was coming out of this one,” said Brown, who ended the game loudly with his 10th and final K against a very formidable Masco lineup. “Bringing this trophy back to the school means everything.”
Clayton McAlpine (2-3,2 RBI) led a 7-hit attack for Beverly, which scored one run in the first and never looked back.
“I thought getting that first run was very important because in a game like this with this kind of pitching one run can seem like three or four,” said 17th year Beverly skipper Dave Wilbur, “and Spencer showed you why he is an all-scholastic and the MVP of our league.”
McAlpine got the Panthers (20-4) on the board in the initial frame with a sharp single to center off Masconomet starter David Hunter (5 1/3IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, 7Ks) to plate Matt Collins.
In the third McAlpine struck again as he sent a Hunter offering all the way to the wall in left at cavernous LeLacheur to plate the speedy Nick Berry all the way from first.
The Panthers would add a big insurance run an inning later with some heads-up play on the base paths. With Conor Hanlon on third and Tim McCarthy on first after a single to right, the Panthers’ second baseman broke for second, drew the throw and Hanlon alertly broke for home, just beating the tag on the delayed steal.
The offense was more than enough with the way Brown was dealing on the hill.The hard-throwing righty allowed just two hits through the first five frames until Masco (21-3) finally broke through for a run in the sixth when John Seymour’s sacrifice fly to center scored Andrew Manni, who was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
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