The Sports Buzz for June 27 - July 2

We're back from the holiday, and you know what that means. It's time for the Sports Buzz, the fastest three minutes in Brookline sports coming your way right now:

Well, how about this for some late fireworks? The Brookline American Legion baseball team is making a push for a strong second half of the season, winning three of its last five games, including last week's 7-4 victory over visiting Needham at Warren Field.

Brookline pitcher Adam Blumberg allowed four runs, while striking out eight in 6 1/3 innings.

"He was great all game for us," head coach Patrick Moore said. "He kept the other team way off balance until they got to him late, but overall [it was] an awesome performance."

Blumberg almost made it four in a row for Brookline in the complete game department.

Mariano Suriel took over in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out. Suriel struck out the first batter he faced, before inducing the last hitter to ground back to the box, ending the game.

Brookline led, 7-0, heading into the sixth inning. Offensively, Andrew Colgan led the locals, going 2 for 3 with a double, three RBIs, and a run scored.

Alex Moses-Gardner rippped an RBI double and scored a run, while Nick Doyle went 2 for 3 with two stolen bases and a run scored.

Jon Gold also went 2 for 3 and scored a run.

Brookline also defeated host Canton, 2-1, as Eric Durmas went the distance on the hill, striking out seven. Moses-Gardner ripped a key RBI double in the third, while Rozek went 2 for 3 with a stolen base and run scored.

After that tilt, the locals lost a tough one to Norwood, 2-0, in a well-played game.

"Norwood is one of the top teams in the league, and even though we lost, we played extremely well," Moore said. "The only issue for us was leaving guys on base."

Brookline's Kyle Kazanjian-Amory pitched a complete game, surrendering only three hits and striking out three.

Rozek went 2 for 3, and Andrew Fonte went 1 for 2 with a double.

Later in the week, host Brookline fell to Foxboro, 10-8. Bitten by its own miscues, Post 11 rallied but was unable to recover at Warren Field.

“Big time. Costly. Couldn’t come back from them,” Moore said about the team’s errors. “We had our opportunities. Kicked the ball around. Not the way to win a game. 

"[We] Played good defense all year," he added. "This is new. And it really hurts us right now because we are fighting for a playoff spot.”

The loss drops Brookline to 5-9 and a tie for fifth place in the District 6 West Division. The top five teams in the division make the playoffs.

Neither team could take control early as they traded leads. But in the bottom of the third inning, Brookline’s Henry Lucey (2 for 2, 3 RBI) ripped a single to left field scoring Kazanjian-Amory. That tied the contest at 6-6.

Campbell Narron followed with a hit to center, and a misplayed ball on the same play allowed Lucey to score, and Brookline led, 7-6. 

But Foxboro battled back. In the following inning, with a runner on second, a Vincent Monahan single tied the game at 7-7. 

Then, in the sixth, Foxboro's Steven Nagle doubled in a run, after an error on a fly ball, and scored on a misplayed bunt.  

Foxboro added another unearned run in the seventh inning to go ahead, 10-7.

Brookline cut the deficit to 10-8, but its last rally fell short.

“I told [my team] to come back tomorrow and be ready to win a game. You know, try to forget it," Moore said.

In other sports news, Susannah Ford, Beth Dowd and William Wemer of Brookline have joined Swim Across America to make a splash for pediatric cancer survivorship programs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The 17th annual Boston Harbor 22-mile relay swim is on Friday, July 15, and the 15th annual DCR Nantasket Beach one-mile and half-mile swims are on Saturday, July 16.

“The swims are a great way for people to come together and participate in a sport they love alongside Olympic swimming legends while raising critical funds for the David. B. Perini Jr., Quality of Life Clinic at Dana-Farber,” says 1988 Olympic Silver Medalist Janel Jorgensen, who is also the executive director of the organization. “This year Craig Beardsley, Carlton Brunner and Brooke Bennett are among the Olympians scheduled to swim with us.”

Every stroke and dollar makes a difference in the fight against cancer. The Boston Harbor swim is an all day event that starts from behind the Boston Harbor Hotel at Rowes Wharf. Swimmers pledge a minimum of $1,500 to participate. Swimmers taking part in the one and half-mile competitive ocean swims at Nantasket Beach in Hull must raise a minimum of $250 each.

Swim Across America is a non-profit corporation that organizes events from Boston to San Francisco to support cancer research at the country’s finest hospitals and institutions.  Proceeds from the Boston-area swims go directly to the David B. Perini, Jr. Quality of Life Program at Dana-Farber, where experts help pediatric cancer survivors with an array of issues, including long-term effects of treatment, social and psychological concerns and the risk of second cancers.

For more information, to register, or to give a gift, visit www.swimacrossamerica.org. 

(Peter Shanley and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute contributed to this report)