Blue Sox Clinch Semifinal Series, Move on to Face Watertown

Lexington Blue Sox catcher Eric Poling probably had the best time at Saturday's game against the Wakefield Merchants at Walsh Field. Either Poling, or pitcher Matt O' Brien, who closed out the 3-2 win for the Sox.

"Great job Eric," DeAngelis said to Poling, after he scored a run late in the game. "He's had a great series. And if we named MVP's for semi-finals series' he would have been it."

The win at Wakefield clinched the best-of-five semifinal series for Lexington, which moves on to face Watertown on Monday for the start of the best-of-five Intercity League championship series.

"Wakefield is a pretty good baseball team," Lexington Coach Rick DeAngelis said. "They don't give you anything, you gotta go take it. And their kid (Darren Bisso) had a no-hitter going until the sixth inning. "

The Sox kept whacking the ball deep into the outfield, coming close many times to hitting homeruns, but practically every hit was aimed at Wakefield's gloves.

But Bisso's no-hitter ended in the top of seventh, after DeAngelis told the team to "stay focused, play your game, put good swings on the ball, get base runners on and we'll move it."

DeAngelis told Poling, "Just get a good pitch and drive it."

Poling was at-bat with one out. Peter Frates was on second after getting hit and stealing base on Steve Gath's single into left-field. Bisso's throw lined up with Poling's bat and he too smacked the ball into left field for a RBI as Frates scored the game's, and Lexington's, first run.

Dan Graham was intentionally walked (replaced by pinch runner Jimmy Hughes), which gave Lexington a bases-loaded chance.

Tommy Haugh's single scored Gath from third, making it a 2-0 game. Then Dan Capra's double brought Poling home to make it 3-0.

Next it was Wakefield's chance to get on the board, and in the bottom of the seventh against Lexington pitcher Sam Finn, the Merchants did.

Wakefield's Lorenzo Papa scored Matt Russo (3-1) after Russo and L.J Demaino advanced to third and second on Finn's balk – he hesitated after beginning a pitch.

Then Finn was relieved by O' Brien with one out for the Merchants.

"I think Sam reached his limit," DeAngelis said. "He had thrown close to 100 pitches and I think he got tired.

"Matt has a great split-finger fastball and a change up and we wanted to take advantage of the fact that he keeps the ball down in the strike zone."

Papa's scoring hit was followed by John Davison's hit off O' Brien's pitch. Davison scored Demaino, making it a 3-2 game, but O' Brien won it for Lexington against John Zagaria at two outs, three balls, and two strikes until he threw the third strike.

"We came here with the mindset, win today, not go through the motions just so we could play tomorrow and win tomorrow," DeAngelis said after the win. "We were in the moment – win today."

DeAngelis said he expects Lexington to have its hands full on Monday against Watertown.

"Watertown is a very tough team," he said. "They beat us three games out of four during the regular season, although we were the regular season first-place finishers. So we have our hands full, but we're a good team, they're a good team. You're gonna see two good teams each wanting the Intercity League Championship and the fans are going to see great baseball."