Page 16 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, ApRil 26, 2024 GREATER BOSTON LEAGUE ROUNDUP: Somerville races to top in GBL Baseball race; Malden & Revere battle in Boys Volleyball Girls softball features Medford, Everett & Revere jockeying back-and-forth for top spot By Steve Freker W hen the season began, it was generally agreed that a number of teams could challenge for the top spot in the Greater Boston League Baseball race. For the past several years, it has been all about “The Lynns”: Lynn Classical and Lynn English. Lynn Classical has dominated the GBL for the past two seasons, winning back-toback league titles and putting together an eye-opening, 35-5 record overall. In 2021, the first season back from the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, Classical finished in second place behind that year’s 2021 league champ, Lynn English. How about this year? Well, both of the Lynn teams – Classical and English – have younger than usual rosters, as both the Classical Rams and the English Bulldogs graduated many senior starters. Longtime Lynn Classical Head Coach Mike Zukowski also resigned after last season, leavBASEBALL | FROM PAGE 14 Negron threw the ball well for three innings against Revere. Negron gave up no hits, and whiffed four. “(Negron) was balling out there,” said Love. Negron also contributed a hit to the offense, along with Goffigan. There were a lot of walks, but when they did hit the ball Love was happy that they were able to put the ball in play. Against Medford, the Tide boys were plagued by late game mistakes, while early on they were very much competitive. Freshman starting pitcher Derek Soper was phenomenal throwing lights out to begin this game, according to Love. The Mustangs then scored three runs in the third inning, centered around a drop popup that aided in the offensive outburst. Medford enjoyed a 4-1 lead until the Everett offense woke up to score three times in the sixth to tie up the proceedings. Albert Santana knocked in a run on a hard-hit groundball to shortstop during the team’s comeback in the sixth. But then that one bad inning haunted Everett, once again, when Medford broke the tie with seven runs in the sevRevere Boys Volleyball Coach Lianne O’Hara Mimmo. (Courtesy photo) ing the program to free up his time to be able to follow his own son’s sports career at St. Mary’s High School in Lynn. Familiar Lynn coach Leon Elwell took over for Zukowski. Elwell is well-known in the Babe Ruth circles, having led several Lynn teams to New England and once to a National Championship tournament. With the “Lynns” apparently in the rebuilding mode, it was enth to deceptively win it going away. But they did make a solid defensive play in that frame on a throw by Lara in centerfield to Nordeivy Santana to tag out a Medford runner at second base. “We just didn’t make the routine plays, once again,” said Love. “We have to learn how to finish off innings cleanly, and minimize errors in critical situations. But we are still showing signs of growth as a young team. “There are still 14 games left on the regular season schedule to turn everything around,” added the first-year head coach. “We have to remember it’s not how you start, but how you ultimately finish up the season. We can’t focus on the record, because it doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story.” Two days since the Medford encounter, the Everett boys returned to the diamond to play Malden on April 24 after press deadline. The Golden Tornadoes were the only GBL team they haven’t played before this past Wednesday’s contest. The schedule will now flip around again when they take on the Red Devils on Monday (April 29) at Chelsea’s Carter Park, starting at 4 p.m. expected that Somerville High’s Highlanders would be a key factor in this year’s GBL Baseball race. Like the Lynn teams and also Revere, Somerville was a senior-dominated team last season. This year? Somerville has perhaps the best two-way player in the league on its roster – senior lefthanded ace pitcher and middle of the lineup slugger Ian Born – but was expected to have a bit of a struggle with a rebuilding year. Born has not disappointed. Malden Boys Volleyball Coach Dan Jurkowski. (Courtesy photo) believed that the door was open for several other teams to challenge for the top spot. Maybe Malden, with a good mix of veterans, like senior captains Zeke Noelsaint, Jake Simpson and Ryan Coggswell, and young talent like pitchers sophomore Ryan McMahon and freshman Ryan Bowdridge. But look out, GBL, here comes Somerville! Very few SOFTBALL | FROM PAGE 14 the Tide on Patriots Day at Glendale Park, where the home team recorded its fifth win of the season in as many games. Warren pitched five innings against the Highlanders, before the game was called, because of the mercy rule. She ended up striking out five, while allowing two walks and two hits. The Everett offense got going right away in the first with two runs. Longmore started it off with a double, followed by a single from Dresser. Longmore, now on third, soon came home on a passed ball. Dresser eventually went to third on a passed ball, before coming home on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Seward. Somerville trimmed the deficit in half with one in the second. But in the third, Everett widened the gap with two more. After Seward singled, Masucci connected on a two-run homer to give her mates a 4-1 advantage. The Tide broke it open in the fourth with six more runs. Cvitkusic got it started by reaching first on a dropped third strike, and she eventually came all the way around to score the first run of the All he has done is represent as the top pitcher in the league, 4-0 on the mound with an 0.88 ERA and hitting at a robust .556 clip with 13 RBIs in 9 games, both league-leading numbers. His younger brother Colin Born has two pitching wins himself to boost the Highlanders. Looks like Head Coach Matt O’Donnell’s Somerville team has skipped the “rebuild” label and gone completely in the other direction – up! As the season approaches its midway inning. Later on in the frame, Seward singled in two more. Masucci was credited with a sacrifice fly to account for another run. Maria-Babcock tripled in a run, and Warren then singled her home, and all of a sudden, the locals were enjoying a 10-1 lead. The home team scored twice more in the fifth to end the game quickly via the mercy rule. Everett then continued the onslaught with a 16-7 win over visiting Revere. It was the team’s sixth straight victory. Warren went all seven innings, giving up seven hits, two walks and six earned runs. She whiffed six. “Revere has always had a great hitting team, and we saw that right away in this game,” said Poste-Schiavo. “One of our strengths is defense, so we needed to make those plays to keep Revere off the bases. Our bats came alive in the second and third innings, but we knew it wasn’t enough, because of Revere’s comeback ability.” After Revere took a 1-0 lead after one, the Tide wiped it out with six in the second. With the bases loaded, Longmore singled in two. Dresser doubled in a run. Seward then doubled home Dressmark, Somerville is perfect in Greater Boston League play at 6-0 and 7-2 overall. With just one more league game left in its first time around, versus Chelsea Wednesday this week, it’s a good bet they get past the first time around unbeaten. If Malden has any hope at a shot at its first GBL baseball title in 30 years – since 1994 – then Monday’s road trip to Somerville’s Trum Field is essential, a “must win” at all costs. With all of the other teams knocking each other left and right, at this point, the GBL title really looks like it’s Somerville’s to lose. Defending champ Revere and Malden serving up a GBL battle at the top in Boys Volleyball W ith only a few years as an official program in GBL | SEE PAGE 17 er. Maria-Babcock knocked in the final two runs of the inning with a single. The Tide extended the lead with seven more runs in the third. Their first two runs came home on a Revere throwing error, before Seward doubled home two more. She then scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Mason. Maria-Babcock singled in the final run of the inning. But Revere refused to give up, scoring six in the fourth, but still trailed by six, 13-7. The Tide got two back in the home half on a two-run blast by Dresser. It was the freshman’s third round tripper of the year. The Everett girls accounted for their final run of the game in the fifth on a single by Jayla Davila. The Everett girls have since traveled to Medford on April 22, where its six-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of the host Mustangs, 5-2. More on this game in next week’s Everett Advocate. They then hosted Malden on April 24 after press deadline, before playing them again in a rematch at Malden’s Callahan Park later today (April 26), starting at 4 p.m.
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