LOWELL — With nearly 400 fans thinking hook, a gassed Andrew Sinkiewicz landed one final jab.
"I was on fumes," said the Georgetown High junior, who fought through 120-plus pitches and somehow held off Newburyport, 4-3, in a Division 3 North championship classic at LeLacheur Park.
"Fastball, all fastball," added the Royals senior, who induced a Ryan O'Connor tapper to the mound to strand the potential tying and winning runs at third and second in the bottom of the seventh. "I wasn't thinking inside or out, I just knew I could throw it by him. There was just no way I was coming out of this one."
Georgetown now plays South champion Abington in the Eastern Mass. title game/state semifinals Tuesday in Brockton (4 p.m.).
"This group isn't done either," assured Royals coach Mark Rowe, clutching the school's first North sectional baseball title. "Sink just gutted it out for us. He wasn't throwing hard in that last inning. He's thrown a lot of postseason pitches and it started to show. But it was good enough."
Sinkiewicz sprinted through five scoreless frames at his own pace.
"That's Sink, 3-0, 3-2, out," said Rowe. "That's been his season."
The five goose eggs allowed his club to finally break through. And junior Marco Luisi delivered loudly.
A slugging first baseman, Luisi smacked "Homers 1 and 2 of my life," he said.
The first was a 380-foot bomb over the left-centerfield wall in the second. In the sixth, Luisi dented the scoreboard in left, about 350 feet away.
"I saw some pitches I liked and just tried to hit them hard," said Luisi. "Then I was just hoping they got out. It's a pretty big park."
Georgetown added two more in the seventh for insurance after the Clippers sliced the margin to 2-1.
Anthony Conte doubled in Mike Ruh, who had beaten out an infield single. He moved to third on an overthrow home then scored on Sinkiewicz's infield bounder between second and first.
The cushion was huge as the Port came alive in the bottom half of the frame.
After striking out the lead man, Sinkiewicz was touched for three hits.
Luisi made a great stab of a foul pop near the railing for the second out, but Kyle McElroy's double to right scored a pair and set up the final encounter.
"I just think we want it more," said Sinkiewicz, who improved to 6-0 on the year. "We have so much heart. And we're just having so much fun. No reason to stop now."
Georgetown 4, Newburyport 3
Division 3 North final
Georgetown (4): Michael Ruh rf 4-1-1, Joe Esposito cf 0-0-0, Danyer Fabian cf 4-0-0, Anthony Conte ss 2-1-1, Andrew Sinkiewicz p 3-0-0, Marco Luisi 1b 2-2-2, Chris Esposito c 2-0-0, Dan Noelk dh 1-0-0, Jared Lathrop dh 2-0-1, Joe Slattery 2b 2-0-0, Josh Ingram 3-0-0, Totals 25-4-5
Newburyport (3): Tyler Stotz lf 4-1-2, Kyle Leblanc cf 3-1-1, Joe Clancy ss 4-1-2, Matt Mottola 2b 4-0-2, Kyle McElroy p 4-0-2, Ryan O'Connor 3b 1-0-0, Tom Morris 1b 2-0-0, Ben Tyler dh 3-0-0, D.J. Grabowski rf 2-0-0, John Isabel ph 1-0-0, Totals 32-3-9
Georgetown (18-7):010 0 0 1 2 —4
Newburyport (18-6):0 0 0 0 0 1 2 —3
RBI: G — Luisi 2, Sinkiewicz, Conte; N — Morris, McElroy 2
WP: Sinkiewicz; LP: McElroy
Next game: vs. Abington, at Brockton, Tuesday, 4 p.m., EMass Division 3 final
