DANVERS โ The Peabody West Little League 9-year-old All-Stars captured the 2024 Stan Brown Jamboree championship Friday night with an 8-4, come-from-behind victory against host Danvers National Gold at Tapley Park.
Aiden Sencabaugh had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a walk and three runs scored. Robbie Stanziani (2-for-3, double, R) and Ryan Greenfield (2-for-3) also had multiple-hit games.
Manager Joe DeNisco said that while West’s bats were on fire in the final, the secret of the team’s success has been pitching.
“Pitching is what has driven us,” he said. “Pitching primarily, and also the defense. Today, it was Robbie Stanziani and Julien Hendrick who shared the pitching and did a great job. They pitched their best game of the season and both rose to the occasion, considering our bullpen was depleted. The bats have been on and off and really haven’t been our calling card, but we have had some timely hits when we needed them.”
Noah Teisiera (1-for-3), Logan Miller (1-for-2, BB) and Harrison Mason (1-for-2) also picked up base hits, while Hendrick (BB), Andrew DeNisco (BB), James Dockery (BB) and Jon Genzale (2 BB) scored one run each.
Joe DeNisco highlighted a couple of key defensive plays that swung the momentum in West’s favor.
“Sencabaugh made a beautiful play in the hole at short to throw out a runner in a bang-bang play at first,” DeNisco said. “James Dockery tracks down a fly ball in right that was a huge out. Those defensive plays really energized our team.”
This was West’s fourth game in as many days.
“I’m so happy for the boys because it’s never easy playing four games in four days,” Joe DeNisco said. “They’ve put in so much effort in developing into the best players they can be, so to have that effort culminate with a win is really satisfying for them and their families.”
West is also playing in the Wyoma tournament and will be squaring off against cross-city rival Peabody Little League on Aug. 3 at Reinfuss Field. Lynnfield and Saugus are also in the mix.
Earlier in the week, West pulled out another comeback win, defeating Peabody, 6-5, in the Wyoma tournament. Trailing, 5-3, going into the top of the sixth, Mason led off with a single. Sencabaugh followed up with an RBI double to score Mason and make it a one-run game, 5-4. But West wasn’t done. Stanziani closed out the rally with a game-winning, two-run homer to put West on top, 6-5.
Wes Cloutman started for West and threw three strong innings. Greenfield and Andrew DeNisco (2-inning save) mopped up in relief.
Joe DeNisco said the atmosphere in the park was electric.
“These were two evenly-matched teams and the park was buzzing with excitement from fans all across Peabody,” he said.