Lynnfield 8-16

AUGUST 16, 2018
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Sports
Erik Bell has made quite an IMPACT
By Daniel Kane
BEVERLY — After a playing in a
soccer game last year, what seemed like
an ordinary injury revealed a far more serious
problem for 11-year-old Lynnfield
native Erik Bell and his family.
“He was playing goalie and had taken
a really hard hit to the stomach,” Erik’s
mother, Adrienne, said. “For four days
he wasn’t feeling great, some swelling,
and on the fourth day he started having
respiratory issues so we decided to have
him checked out at the ER.”
The trip to the emergency room revealed
awful news for the Bell family.
“Within two hours they were 90 percent
sure it was cancer,” Adrienne said.
“He was diagnosed with Burkitt’s lymphoma
in 2017.”
While spending several months in the
hospital one thing that Erik, who grew up
playing soccer, lacrosse and flag football,
missed the most was the camaraderie that
comes with playing on a sports team.
“He was in the ICU for a week and
after that moved down to the children’s
oncology unit, we were there for six
months,” Adrienne said. “He wasn’t able
to play sports while getting treatment
and one of the biggest things he missed
was the camaraderie with his friends.
Because of the treatment he wasn’t allowed
to see a lot of his friends, because
of the precautions.”
The Bell family was soon reached out
to by Team IMPACT, a national nonprofit
headquartered in Boston that connects
children facing serious or chronic
illnesses with college athletic teams, to
PHOTO | ENDICOTT COLLEGE
Erik Bell high-fives the Endicott football team as part of Team IMPACT day
Monday.
pair Erik with a college team.
After months of recovering, Erik became
an official member of the Endicott
College Gulls football team, signing his
letter of intent during a special “Draft
Day” press conference at the school
Monday afternoon.
“When team IMPACT reached out and
said they had a couple colleges on the
North Shore who might be interested he
got so excited,” Adrienne said. “He lit right
up and then later we found Endicott, which
is so close and such a beautiful place to be.
It just worked out beautifully.”
After signing his letter of intent, Erik
was given his own Gulls jersey and
fielded questions from some of his new
teammates. Erik revealed that football’s
actually his second favorite sport behind
lacrosse and that he was excited to hang
out with his new teammates.
As a team member Erik will attend
practices, games, team dinners and more
events with the Gulls.
“It’s been great, I think it’s not only
a great experience for our football program
but obviously for Erik,” Endicott
first-year head coach Paul McGonagle
said. “When our players are in the ‘dog
days’ of camp or any time they feel tired
they can just look over at Erik and understand
that he’s a lot stronger and tougher
than you could even imagine.
“I think overall we’re just excited to
see him and see how our players are with
him and how he how he is with them,”
McGonagle said. “You can already see
the reception he’s had, he came out in
the spring and did some things with us.
It’s a great addition and he’s our number
one recruit.”
In addition to joining the Gulls, Erik
will be able to go back to school this
fall for his sixth grade year at Lynnfield
Middle School after being declared
cancer free following a surgery in June.
“It’s been so amazing,” Erik’s father
Matt said. “Everyone reaching out, not
just these teams but people in general.
People that we didn’t really know before
have all reached out to help with
everything.”
“It just shows you what kind of community
is around you that you’re not
even aware of until you’re in such a
tragic situation,” Adrienne said. “To
have this support and especially from a
student athlete’s perspective, to have all
these older athletes to give him something
to aspire to as he’s getting stronger
and better every day.”
Pitching carries Lynnfield in Big Diamond finale
By Anne Marie Tobin
LYNNFIELD — The Lynnfield Middlesex Big
Diamond baseball team ended the season last Thursday
on a high note, defeating Andover 2-1 at Lynnfield
High School to clinch the league title.
Luke Martinho and Hayden Bond delivered a dominant
pitching performance, combining for a 2-hitter.
Martinho started and went four strong innings, allowing
one unearned run on two hits with a walk and
five strikeouts, three of them looking in the third inning.
Bond came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth
inning and was lights out. He pitched three perfect innings
of no-hit ball, retiring all nine batters he faced in
order, six of the them on strikeouts. Bond struck out
the side in the fifth inning.
Lynnfield scored the first run of the game in the top
of the third inning. Right fielder Ethan Diranian was
hit by a pitch and came around to score on a single by
Bond, thanks to a slide that caused the catcher to drop
the throw.
“He was out dead to rights, out by 20 feet, but he kept
running, made a perfect slide and knocked the ball out
of the catcher’s glove,” said Martinho.
Martinho cruised through the first three innings, retiring
nine of 10 batters and allowing just one single.
But Andover got to him in the bottom of the fourth
inning. Andover’s leadoff hitter reached on an infield
error and ended up scoring on a base hit. That batter
would be the last Andover batter to reach first base,
thanks to Bond, who slammed the door shut the rest
of the way.
Bond had a little help from left fielder Spencer Riley,
who robbed an Andover batter of extra bases with an
athletic catch in the sixth inning.
“That inning when they scored should have been a
1-2-3 inning, but wasn’t,” said Tony Martinho. “We
got great pitching overall and Hayden was just an absolute
beast. He didn’t throw anything down the middle,
but just hit the edges and threw the ball hard. They
didn’t have any shot of hitting him, and Spencer made
a great sliding catch in left off this lefty, who hit a ball
that was tailing away toward the line. If he doesn’t
make that catch, the ball would have gone to the fence.
It was a hard hit liner and that was definitely the defensive
play of the game.”
Lynnfield scored the game-winning run in the top of
the seventh inning. Tyler Scoppettuolo led off with a
double, but was erased after getting caught in a rundown
between second and third on a grounder off the
bat of first baseman Joey Gizmunt. Gizmunt, alertly
took second on the play and scored on a clutch RBI
single by catcher Evan Balian.
“That was heads up baserunning by Gizmunt to get
to second, giving us a very fast runner in scoring position,”
said Martinho. “Then Evan came through with a
nice hit to left center to bring Joey home.”
Lynnfield finished the summer season 9-2-1 and 2-2
against Andover.
“I’d play them every day if we could,” said Martinho.
“They’re a very good team and we match up well
against them, so they are great for the kids to play because
we know they will be challenged.
“It was a great way to finish up the season, and I
guess that win technically makes us league champions
as we had the best record, so the kids should be pretty
happy with the season.”
FILE PHOTO
Hayden Bond stymied Andover in Lynnfield’s 2-1
victory.