Gloucester baseball rallies late to survive scare from Saugus

May 27—Wednesday's Northeastern Conference tilt between against Saugus was a bit of a mixed bag for the Gloucester baseball team.

The Fishermen started strong, opening up a four-run lead, only to see the Sachems chip away at that lead and eventually take a sixth inning lead of their own with a four-run rally.

Gloucester, however, had the last laugh as a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning led to a 10-6 win at Nate Ross Field.

"We were a little bit lucky to come away with a win today," said Gloucester head coach Rory Gentile, whose team moves to 6-3. "We did what we were supposed to do early on to get the lead but we never put them away and it almost cost us with a tough inning in the sixth."

The Fishermen looked to be cruising to a victory, ahead 5-2 entering the sixth inning in a game they never trailed. But Saugus started to find some holes and took advantage of three walks in the frame.

Kyle McLaughlin cut the Sachems deficit to 5-4 with a two-RBI single to left, plating Jason Casaletto (walk) and Anthony Cicolini (walk). After another walk and a single loaded up the bases, Saugus' Matthew MacEachern hit one up the middle that scored McLaughlin to tie it.

It looked like there would be no further damage after Gloucester shortstop Jack Costanzo made a great play on the hit and flipped it to second base for the second out. But on an odd miscommunication, first base was vacated as the Gloucester first baseman thought the grounder got through the infield and went to serve as the cutoff man. That allowed the go-ahead run to score to give Saugus a 6-5 edge.

"We have a tendency to come out strong, but then we didn't continue to move in the right direction," Gentile said. "Give Saugus credit for doing what they needed to do when we made mistakes, but we should not have let them back in that game. In order to be the team we need to be there are a lot of areas we need to work on."

Saugus' lead, however, was short lived.

Danny Hafey doubled to lead off the bottom of the sixth, moved to third on a balk then came in on an Anthony Rizzo sacrifice fly to make it 6-6.

The Sachems looked like they were out of the inning when Emerson Marshall hit a fly ball to center with two outs. But the fly ball turned into a double as the Saugus center fielder misplayed it in the wind. Gloucester made that mistake hurt as it led to a four-run rally with two outs in the frame.

Brett Moore singled in Marshall to give Gloucester a 7-6 lead, Zach Abbott then singled in Costanzo, who walked, for an insurance run. The Fishermen weren't done there either as Zach Morris delivered his third hit and third RBI of the game to score Moore. Abbott then came in to score on a double steal, beating the throw to the plate with a nifty dodge after Morris got caught in a rundown between first and second.

Tommy Elliott got the side in order in the seventh to earn the win in relief.

"We did a good job taking advantage of the mistakes in that inning and when we got runners on base we did what we were supposed to do," Gentile said. "And we have been better swinging the bats. I thought we did a good job putting pressure on the defense today and putting the ball in play."

Morris singled in Costanzo for the first run of the game in the bottom of the first. After a Casaletto homer tied it in the top of the second, Gloucester jumped right back on top when Hafey scored on a Marshall grounder to third after delivering his first of two doubles on the day.

Gloucester got three more in the third to extend that lead to 5-1. Morris singled in Moore, who singled, to make it 3-1. Morris then came in on a fielding error and Hafey later came around to score on a Rizzo single.

Hafey and Morris powered the Gloucester offense on Wednesday. Hafey had two doubles and scored three runs while Morris had three RBI hits. Rizzo also drove in a pair of runs while Moore had two hits and two runs scored.

"The middle of our order has been doing really well," Gentile said. "Hafey got us started with two leadoff doubles and that's three good games in a row for Morris."

Gloucester returns to action on Friday at home against Danvers (4 p.m.).