Brookline Advances in Tournament of Champions

Brookline's Under-16 Lou Tompkins All Star team punched its ticket to the weekend single-elimination portion of the Tournament of Champions with a 6-0 victory over Acton-Boxboro at Warren Field on Wednesday night.

Campbell Narron pitched five innings of one-hit baseball and the offense was steady with all six runs coming in the first four innings of play. All of this came against an Acton-Boxboro team that handed Brookline an 11-3 loss in mid-July.

"They gave us our worst beating of the year," said manager John Bucci. "That was a humiliating game for us, so our guys were a little motivated."

Narron was very efficient through the first three innings of his outing. He recorded four ground-ball outs, three fly-ball outs and two strikeouts over the first three, and was quick and efficient every time he took the mound.

The lengthy right-hander issued a walk to begin the fourth and allowed his only hit — a sneaky bunt for a base hit — of the outing to the next batter. But he wiggled out of that with two punch-outs and a fly ball to right field.

"I was just locating it well and I was just trying to get swings," Narron said of his outing.

Hikari Mamata finished off the final two innings to preserve the shutout, which means Narron could go five innings over the weekend in the single-elimination tournament. Teams are only allowed to throw a pitcher for 10 innings during the week, and with Eric Dumas racking up seven on Tuesday night, getting Narron out of there with a lead and some innings left to spare was very important.

"The more innings we can limit Campbell the better," said Bucci.

"He's a horse," Bucci added on his starter. "He's one of the main reasons we are here and we appreciate everything he gives us."

Narron was able to stay away from the late innings because the offense was so efficient from the get go. Brookline got one in the top of the first, but really could have had a big inning if it wasn't for a 1-4-3 double play on a hard-hit ball by Scott Cordner. The pitcher just got a glove on it and the ball ricchochetted right to the second baseman who turned the big play.

Alex Moses-Gardner and Alex Rozek dumped back-to-back RBI singles in front of the rightfielder in the bottom of the second inning.

Dumas placed a lazy fly ball into no-man's land right behind the first-base bag to score Jonny Gold in the bottom of the third. Kevin Chen executed a hit-and-run to perfection as his big blast to left helped Dumas motor around all the way from first to push the lead to 5-0.

Adam Blumberg beat out a weakly hit ground ball in front of the pitcher, which allowed Narron to fly in from third with the game's final run.

"They had a good approach tonight," Bucci said of the offense.

Brookline is now in a wait-and-see position for the weekend tournament. Bucci said he would give his guys a day off if they need it, but with a championship on the line this weekend, Bucci said he wouldn't be surprised if his players turned down the offer.