BEVERLY — With one swing of the bat, Jackson Doughty turned the Section 4 Little League all-star tournament upside down.
Doughty belted a first-pitch fastball over the fence in right-center in the bottom of the seventh, giving Beverly a thrilling 8-7 extra inning victory over Danvers National at Harry Ball Field.
Beverly, which never led before Doughty’s blast, evened its record in the sectional at 1-1 and remained alive in the hunt for a state championship. They will face Acton-Boxboro Friday (5:30 p.m.) in their third and final round-robin game.
“Resiliency has been the theme of our team all season,” said Beverly manager Kyle Baker. “These kids never stop believing.”
District 15 champion Danvers National, which lost to Beverly for the first time in three games this summer, is also 1-1 and must defeat Swampscott Friday (7:30 p.m.) to advance to Saturday’s final.
Tied after six innings, Danvers National took a 7-6 lead in the top of the seventh on Zane Spencer’s RBI single to right. But Beverly wasted little time in responding.
Sofia Maiorano, who wound up as the winning pitcher, knocked her second base hit of the game, a single into center, to lead things off. Doughty, Beverly’s ninth batter in its 13-player lineup, then cranked a no-doubter over the fence for the dramatic walkoff win.
“I’m super happy for Jackson,” said Baker. “He’s been hitting it hard all season and does that a lot in practice, but hasn’t had a result like that before tonight. So happy for him.
“We’ve structured our order to have a 1-through-6, then reset and try to go 1-through-7 again with the bottom half of our lineup. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t; tonight, it worked out well for us.”
Danvers National manager Stan Gesualdi was quick to praise Beverly following the contest.
“They competed, hung in there and deserved it,” said Gesualdi, whose team had beaten Beverly twice during District 15 play, including in the championship game.
“(Maiorano) came in and pitched really well. She shut us down,” he added.
Danvers National jumped out to a 4-0 lead quickly after a half-inning. Teddy Blake hit a home run on the game’s first pitch; Cam Sillars hads an RBI single to center, and Jaxon Currier drove home two more with a single to left-center.
But Beverly wasted little time in responding. Sammy Hannaway singled and promptly trotted home on Steele Irons’ 2-runblast two left-center.
With one out, Gabe Maniaci and Luke Boudreau singled, and each came around on a pair of infield errors.
“Steele was pretty instrumental in us getting back into the game quickly,” said Blake. “That’s pretty typical for him; he sees a lot of intentional walks but he’s very disciplined at the plate … and he can hit it a mile.”
The visitors reclaimed the lead in the fourth inning, 6-4, when Zack Kaplan singled, Kenny Blake walked, and both came around to score, with Thomas Sores knocking in one run.
Down to its final three outs, Beverly clawed out a pair of runs to force extra innings. A bunt single from Ben Gaglione, a walk to Hannaway and an intentional pass issued to Irons loaded the bases with one out. A pitching change resulted in a strikeout, but a pair of fielder’s choices brought home two runs … one where a potential out was dropped.
After playing errorless ball in its opening night victory over Acton-Boxboro Wednesday, the Nats had three miscues against Beverly.
“That’s not typical of the way we normally play,” said Gesualdi. “You play like that and a team hangs around, they’re probably going to be in it until the end.
“We still control our own destiny; we win Friday and we should be in good shape to advance (to Saturday morning’s sectional final). It’ll be exciting to see what happens.”
Contact Phil Stacey
@PhilStacey_SN