Dedham's McDonald Leads Babe Ruth Team to Win

Dedham’s Senior Babe Ruth team opened the floodgates again last night. This time it was an eight-run fifth inning that did the trick in their 10-2 win over Weymouth.

Sunday was game 1 of their best-of-three series playoff that opened at in Dedham, which was well-attended by a well-rested and cooler crowd .

The star of the game for Dedham, Connor McDonald, pitched a complete game as well as smacked a two-run double in the fifth to give his team a comfortable one game lead in the series.

"The only time they got to him was in the third inning," said Dedham manager Kevin Hampe. "It was a great game pitched by Connor."

After surrendering a two-run shot to left by Weymouth’s Scott Hall, which tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the third, the big righty settled down nicely, and kept the Weymouth hitters off the board.

"I just threw strikes and tried to keep it away from them," said McDonald, who scattered eight hits to go along with five strikeouts. "Especially after I hung that curveball [home run to Hall]."

After scoring 16 runs against Westwood on Thursday night, Dedham batted around in the fifth inning thanks to five walks and six hits that led to eight runs and essentially blew open the game for Dedham.

After McDonald and John Bethoney walked to lead off the fifth, Kevin Boudrow lined a RBI double to the gap. Jeremy Clifford also added a RBI single to make it 6-2.

McDonald added two more with his double, to go along with two bases-loaded walks, while the Dedham defense was left to take care of the rest, by allowing only three hits.

"They are a good team and they like to swing," said Hampe. "Especially their top five hitters, you got to mix it up to keep them off-balance by throwing a lot of curveballs."

McDonald credited his middle infield after the win, ”[Weymouth] hit the ball right at Jason Riley and Jonathan and they made the plays."

"I thought we did a nice job in the field," said Hampe. "And we had the big fifth inning."

Dedham got on the board in the bottom of the second when Anthony Valentino smacked a double to right-center to score both Mike Ryan and Mike Sabatino.

The next game will be held Monday night at 5:45 at Weymouth High School in this rematch of last year’s playoff series between these two teams.

Weymouth took the rubber match last year and moved on to face South Boston in the finals. Look for the winner of this series to do the same.

Dedham will throw Kevin Boudrow Monday night and save both front–line starters Sabatino and Ryan for the rubber match, if needed, which will be back in Dedham.