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Division 2 North Semifinals

BEVERLY — A couple of weeks ago, Danvers High senior captain Danny Lynch joked that he probably leads all of New England in bunt singles.

In a pressure-packed Division 2 North semifinals game Thursday at Endicott College, Lynch had the opportunity to swing away. He now leads the North Shore in home runs, too.

A three-run shot over the right field fence in the bottom of the sixth was Lynch’s second homer of the game and sent the Falcons over North Andover, 6-3.

“And I told him when he rounded third that he’d still be bunting next game, too,” joked Danvers coach Roger Day after his team won its 14th straight game.

Danvers (21-2) and North Andover (18-5) were tied 3-3 into the sixth when the Falcons’ Zach Dillon crushed a triple to dead center. Two ground outs and a walk to Andrew Olszak brought up Lynch, who’d already hit a missile of a solo shot to center in the third.

“I got my head on it and made sure I had the perfect swing. I let the ball get deep and made contact,” said Lynch. “Believe the hype. Danvers baseball — that’s become our motto.”

Lynch hit his fourth and fifth homers of the season after slicing open one of his fingers sliding into the third in the first inning. He said the pain numbed over time and he blocked it out while swinging the bat — that’s the type of attitude Day said embodies a kid that carried the ball 38 times in a football playoff win last November.

“It’s a perfect example of a kid that plays another sport and when the moment is big, he thrives. Danny loves the pressure,” Day said. “Sometimes, I wondered if he’d make it to baseball season because he’s flying through the air in football, but that’s who he is. He’s all in, a tough, tough competitor.”

North Andover threatened in the sixth and seventh innings, prompting Day to call on senior Andrew Olszak to close the game on the mound. Olszak got the final two outs of the sixth and danced around two singles in the seventh to record what was his sixth straight win in the North playoffs dating back to last year.

Olszak relieved junior Dean Borders, who pitched well under pressure for most of the afternoon. North Andover out-hit defending EMass. champion Danvers 11-6 but Borders stranded four in scoring position over 5 1/3 innings (including setting the tone by not allowing NA to get an early lead after Brian Varoutsos’ triple in the first).

The Knights never led, tying it a 2-2 in the third on a homer by freshman Joe Quinlan and Trevor Ham’s RBI single. Lynch’s solo homer put Danvers ahead 3-2 and North Andover tied it on Varoutsos’ 2-out RBI single.

Danvers outfielder Jordan DeDonato fired home from left to get Drew Finn trying to score the go-ahead run in the fourth.

“It’s a game of inches. We didn’t miss by much on that play at the plate,” North Andover coach Todd Dulin said. “It was a great game and unfortunately someone has to lose.”

Danvers’ first hit off Brendan Parisotto was a 2-run double by Dillon in the second inning (scoring Matt Andreas and Tommy Mento, who both walked).

Parisotto went all six innings and struck out six while allowing six hits. He walked six and hit one, though, and the Falcons came up with the timely hits.

North Andover’s Varoutsos went 3 for 4, Ham was 2 for 4 while Ryan Bessette had two hits and Parisotto, Joe Kramer, Finn and Quinlan had one each.