Dedham Babe Ruth Advances with Win

When the temperatures hit up near 100 degrees it’s tough to do anything. But don’t tell that to the Dedham Senior Babe Ruth team who won their best-of-three South Shore playoff series against Westwood Thursday evening.

The local ‘boys of summer’ fought off a sluggish first inning to cruise behind starter Mike Ryan, by a lofty 16-5 score in mercy rule-shortened five innings.

Dedham took advantage of an error and five walks in the first inning to take a 4-3 lead over Westwood. They eventually chased Westwood's starter in the second, scoring three more runs with the big blow coming off the bat of Matt Sabatino, who laced a RBI double to put his team up 6-3.

"He is really stroking the ball," said Dedham coach Kevin Hampe after the win.

The win puts Dedham in a showdown against Weymouth Sunday evening at 5:45 at in Dedham.

In the first game of this series Dedham jumped out and won by a 9-3 margin. The victory gave Dedham, who finished with a 14-3 first place record in their division, some breathing room heading into game two.

Game two didn’t go as smooth as they lost a heartbreaker 9-8 in Westwood. But with ace Ryan on the hill Thursday, even battling horrendous heat and fatigue, Dedham was able to advance.

"I don’t think our pitcher had much more in him," said Hampe, "and that’s what happened to them, they ran out of pitching."

Dedham worked the Westwood bullpen over, especially in the fourth inning when they scored seven runs on eight hits. The game-winning blow came off the bat of Kevin Boudrow, who laced a shot to the gap for a two–run double to give Dedham the 10-run advantage, and send all the sweltering Dedham faithful home for a cold beverage.

"Luckily we had more pitching," said Hampe. "When you get into the rubber match of the series it depends who you have left, we were lucky to get to their starter." 

Ryan, who threw five innings, actually threw more pitches than he should have tonight as his defense struggled under the extreme conditions.

"I just tried to throw strikes as much as possible," said Ryan, after allowing four of his six hits in the first inning.

Westwood had seen Ryan three times already this season, so the big righty focused on mixing up his pitches and spotting his fastball in key situations throughout the count.

"Usually when a team has seen you three times they usually have you figured out," said Hampe, "I wanted him to mix up his pitches and stay away from the fastball."

Look for Dedham to go with lefty Sabatino Sunday against Weymouth. He has already beaten them 2-1 in an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel.

"More baseball… that’s what it’s all about in summer league," said Hampe.

 Hopefully, only the weather cools down and not the Dedham bats.