DANVERS — The Peabody West 12-year-old All-Star team saw its summer season come to a close Friday night, losing to host Danvers National, 7-1, at Tapley Park in the championship game of the Stan Brown Jamboree.
Peabody’s only run came in the third inning. Paulie Capurso doubled down the right-field line to bring Jed Sencabaugh home from second base, staking West to a 1-0 lead.
But, after that, it was all Danvers, which capitalized on four West errors to score seven runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to put the game away.
West finished the summer with a 6-4 record. Only two teams got the better of West as District 16 champion Swampscott, as well as Danvers, collected two wins each in those respective games.
“They’re both really good teams,” said West manager Mike McMahon.
“I wasn’t sure what we were going to get going into All-Stars. We asked the kids to just bring a great attitude and great effort every day and we’d get better. They really delivered,” McMahon said. “I couldn’t ask for a better group to finish up with. I’m really proud of all of them. We didn’t win a tournament, but we were in championship games in both of the tournaments we played in. Sometimes, things just don’t fall your way. That’s baseball.”
McMahon said there were many highlights from the Stan Brown Jamboree. After a spring and district season home run drought that saw only one player (Sencabaugh in the district tournament) go yard, West exploded for three home runs at the jamboree. Ben Wenzel clocked one in the championship game against Danvers, while Owen McMahon and Joe Ryan hit back-to-back dingers the previous weekend.
McMahon said that despite the way the game against Danvers ended so suddenly, nobody hung their heads.
“Thirty seconds after the game ended, we turned the page,” he said. “A bunch of our 8s had a game at 5:30 p.m. and they stuck around to cheer us on. We took a big group photo at the end, which was really cool and just a fun way to wrap up the season. I’m proud of the way the kids played all summer and it was awesome for the coaches and kids to wrap up our Little League careers together. It definitely was bittersweet and I’ll definitely miss coaching the kids. We thanked them Friday night for allowing us to be a small part of their journey.”
West’s Stan Brown roster was the same as its district roster, minus Austin Lohanes and Riley Gravalese, so there were plenty of at-bats and fielding chances for the 10 who ended up playing. That group included Owen McMahon, Aiden Muse, Wenzel, Collin Flynn, Danny Lancaster, Jack Lisk, Sencabaugh, Ryan, Justin Deveraux and Capurso.
