Published July 10, 2019
SALEM — The Lynnfield 10/11-year-old baseball team beat Swampscott 4-0 on July 2 to win the District 16 championship.
Swampscott beat Lynnfield 2-0 the night before, forcing a winner-take-all game on Salem’s O’Grady Field.
Following the lead of a 12-strikeout, two-hitter from Luke “Jeff” DiSilvio, Lynnfield only needed one inning with the bats to bring home the championship banner.
They got that inning in the bottom of the 4th when they scored four runs.
LYNNFIELD won the 10/11-year-old District 16 championship after beating Swampscott 4-0 on July 2 in Salem. The boys will move on to sectionals this weekend in North Reading. Pictured in the front row from left to right is Logan Daigle, Will Mandile, Dino Gesamondo, Daniel Lemieux, Ben Dahlstedt, Dylan Nguyen, Joey Wozniak, Sam Bird, Nick Kelter, Harris Hadzihasanovic, Matthew Tracy, Rocco Scenna and Luke DiSilvio. In the back row is coach Michael DiSilvio, manager Dave Tracy and coach Jack Dahlstedt. (Courtesy Photo)
DiSilvio helped his own cause with a leadoff double to right. That brought up Ben “‘Lil Papi” Dahlstedt whose single to center advanced DiSilvio to third. Daniel “Chi” Lemieux entered as a pinch runner for Dahlstedt and promptly stole second.
Logan “Dillis” Daigle stepped up and knocked a double to center, scoring DiSilvio and sending Lemieux to third. A base hit off the bat of Dylan “Dill Pickle” Nguyen scored Lemieux to give Lynnfield a 2-0 lead.
Harris “Hadzi” Hadzihasanovic then hit an RBI single scoring Daigle. Rocco “Rico” Scenna loaded the bases with a single. After two groundouts in which Swampscott got both force outs at home, Matty “Matchew” Tracy added one more insurance run with a base hit to score Scenna and Lynnfield was up 4-0.
DiSilvio and the defense took it from there.
After a groundout to Nguyen at second, “Jeff” struck out the last two batters of the 5th inning. He then got two groundouts, one on a comebacker and another to Tracy at third who threw to Joey “Blazing Speed” Wozniak at first to start the 6th. DiSilvio got a strikeout to end the game.
Lynnfield will now move on to sectionals for a chance to move on to the state championship.
They will meet District 15 champion Hamilton-Wenham on Friday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m. before facing District 13 champion Woburn on Saturday, July 13 at 3 p.m. On Sunday, they will play District 14 champion Andover at 3 p.m. All games will take place at the Benevento Memorial Fields in North Reading.
