Lexington Crushes Watertown, 11-4

If the Lexington Blue Sox go on to win their fifth straight Intercity League championship this summer, they might point to the second inning of Thursday night’s 11-4 win over the Watertown Reds - their opponents in last season’s final - as the moment a potent offense finally kicked into gear.

Lexington trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the second frame, the result of some timely Reds hitting against Blue Sox starter and University of Maine product Kevin Scanlan. But four hits, two Watertown errors and 10 batters later, Lexington had amassed six runs and had taken a five-run lead, at 8-3.

The four-time defending Intercity League champs never looked back, eventually winning in blowout fashion on their home field at Lexington High School.

“Usually at this point in the season, the pitchers are a little ahead of the hitters. All of our hitters needed a game like this,” Blue Sox manager Rick DeAngelis said. “To get so many high-quality at-bats really gives us confidence going forward.”

The Lexington hits came in bunches, and came often -- 14 in total, including three from second baseman Justin Wright and two each from third baseman Ross Curely and shortstop Steve Gath. Eight different Blue Sox scored at least one run, and seven different Lexington players had at least one RBI.

The second inning was when nearly all of the fireworks took place. It started with the most innocent of plays, as Blue Sox catcher and No. 8 hitter Jeff Nolet kicked the frame off by getting hit by a pitch from Watertown’s Mike Antonellis.

“That’s how it’s started with us in past years, with small plays like that,” Lexington center fielder Peter Frates said. “Then guys start to catch fire.”

Nolet eventually scored on a Watertown error, before an RBI infield hit by Frates in the lead-off spot made the score 4-3. Wright then extended the Blue Sox’s lead to 5-3 with a double and Curely broke the game open with a two-run single.

After a sacrifice fly by catcher Mike Morgan, what was once a 2-0 Lexington deficit in the first inning was now an 8-3 lead, which provided more than enough room for the combination of Scanlan and relievers Mike O’Brien and Steve Bodnar to seal the Blue Sox’s’ fourth victory of the season.

The lone bright spot for the Reds was the performance of shortstop and Tufts University star senior Sam Sager, who had two hits and scored all three times he got on base. A Sager run cut the Lexington lead to 9-4 in the fourth inning, before Nolet tacked on another in the bottom of the inning to stretch Lexington’s lead back to 10-4.

The final run of the game came in spectacular fashion, as Blue Sox right fielder and two-time Intercity League MVP Dan Graham launched a solo home run over the right-center field wall in just his second at-bat this season in the bottom of the sixth.

Graham, who just finished up a season as manager of the Lowell High School team and said his time with the team is limited by his role as father of year-old twins, joined the Blue Sox for the first time all season last night and had entered the game earlier as a pinch hitter.

The 35-year-old -- by far the oldest member of the Lexington team -- proved he’s still got a bit of power, even more than a decade removed from his days at Division I Central Connecticut State.

“I actually surprised myself, since I haven’t had a live at-bat since last August,” Graham said. “I got a first-pitch fastball, and then a slider, and then a fastball again, in a similar spot to the first one and was able to get the barrel of my bat on it.”

Lexington, now at 4-2, will continue their season with a doubleheader Sunday at Ferullo Field in Woburn against the Mooney Dental Tanners. Watertown moved to 2-3 on the season with the loss.