Concord Senior American Legion Overpowered by Sudbury

Early 5-0 leads are not unheard of in baseball. Neither are the associated early pitching changes, or teams rallying to erase the deficit.

But the Concord Senior American Legion baseball team couldn't hold on to a second-inning 5-0 lead against Sudbury Post 191 Tuesday night at Sudbury's Feeley Field, and eventually wound up on the short end of a 15-6 result.

The visitors had it going from the outset, as five straight batters reached base in the first inning. Andrew Della Volpe put Concord on the board that inning with a two-run double, plating Michael Taylor and Brendan Canavan. Three more runs in the second thanks to hits by Taylor and Canavan were enough to chase Sudbury's Matt Cahill after only 1 2/3 innings. Cahill swapped positions with second baseman Ryan Bassinger, who walked the only batter he faced. Then the tides started to turn when Ben Chaisson came out of the bullpen, striking out Concord's Andrew Della Volpe for the final out of the second.

Sudbury took advantage of key errors by Della Volpe and starting pitcher Brandon Napolitano to start their rally. They got on the board in the bottom of the second with Chris Murphy's RBI single to drive in Keith Anderson to cut the Concord lead to 5-1. They cut the lead to 5-4 the next inning with a three-run home run by David Baer, soon followed a base hit by Murphy and Anderson driving him in for the second time to knot the score at 5 after three innings.

Murphy wasn't done. He added a three-run homer in the fifth and a bases-clearing double in the sixth, and finished the night 4-for-4 with eight RBIs.

"We made a few mistakes defensively, gave them extra outs, and [Sudbury] made us pay for that," said Concord manager John Morrissey. "[Chaisson] threw well, and that was it."

Though Concord got two runs in the first and three more in the second, they had opportunities for more, but stranded two runners in each of those innings. Chaisson went on to pitch the final 5 1/3 innings, racking up seven strikeouts along the way. Concord wouldn't get another hit until Michael Woo's single in the sixth, or another run until the seventh. Despite the drastic change, Morrissey didn't tell his team to do anything much differently.

"We didn't change our approach," Morrissey commented. "We made some pretty good contact against him, but they made some pretty good plays defensively."

For all the damage Sudbury did, Napolitano held his own for five innings, striking out two and walking only one along the way.
"I thought Brandon battled pretty well," Morrissey added. "He faced a good hitting team, but it is what it is."

Concord (6-10) plays its next game Thursday at 6 p.m. at Lexington.

Before the game, Post 191 held a ceremony for Sudbury resident First Lt. Scott Milley, a U.S. Army Ranger who was killed in Afghanistan in February. Sergeant of Arms Kenny Hiltz read Grantland Rice's poem "Game Called," and volunteers sold special Post 191 camouflage shirts to support the Scott Milley Fund.