Lexington Pair Team Up in Bay State Games

It's been a busy 24 hours of baseball for Rob Krentzman and Will Marcal.

No sooner had the final out been recorded in Monday's Bay State Games opener than the Lexington pair was tossing equipment into Krentzman's car and shuffling off to another game.

"I actually have another game to get to," Krentzman said, when asked to talk about his first of two games yesterday.

That second game was the American Legion All-Star Game in Hudson. Krentzman, who plays for Cambridge Post 442, and Marcal, who represented Lexington Post 38, were both members of the District 5 team that played against a squad from District 8.

But before that, Krentzman and Marcal competed for the Metro team in its 7-4 loss to the Coastal team on the opening day of the Bay State Games baseball tournament.

And the whole process could be repeated again on Tuesday, at least for Marcal.Metro was dealt another blow with a 10-8 loss to the Southeast this morning, while Post 38 resumes regular-season play tonight against Concord at 6 p.m.

"It was brutal," Marcal said of playing two games in Monday's sweltering, 95-degree heat, made worse by oppressive humidity. It could be worse today with temperatures expected to near triple-digits. "But it was good to get the exposure (with the scouts). There is a lot competition out there."

Not to mention the extra heat put on the players by the college and professional scouts on hand at the Bay State Games. Nearly 50 of the approximately 200 in the stands Monday were equipped with notebooks and stopwatches, jotting down notes throughout the opening slate of games.

Neither Krentzman nor Marcal said the watchful eye of the scouts put any added pressure on them.

"You always have to play well because you never know who's watching," Krentzman said.

He started at third base for the Metro team and went 1-for-2, reaching base three times on a single, walk and a fielder's choice. Krentzman, a rising senior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols in Cambridge, also scored twice.

Marcal, who will be a senior at Lexington High School in the fall, went 0-for-2 with a walk in three plate appearances. He started in left field.

Marcal said, though he didn't have a terrific day at the plate, it's always good to play in front of scouts.

Early on, the Metro erased two one-run deficits to take a 3-2 lead over the Coastal team.

Krentzman tied the game at 1-apiece in the second inning when he scored on Ryan Tufts' fielder's choice. Krentzman then came around to tie the game again in the fourth – this time at 2-2 – on a throwing error by Coastal pitcher Alexander Bashaw.

Metro took its first and only lead of the game later in the fourth when Danny Fitzgerald scored on a Jack Powers single.

Coastal took the lead back for good with five runs over the next two innings. It scored three in the fifth on an RBI single by Alex Pernick and a two-run double by Ben Monteiro, who was thrown out trying to stretch it to a triple. Coastal tacked on two more runs in the sixth on back-to-back RBI doubles by Jack Salpietro and Harry Oringer.

Metro got its final run of the game in the seventh when Matthew Brown, who pinch hit for Krentzman, singled and eventually scored on Chris McCarthy's groundout.

In action earlier on Monday, Northeast beat Central 9-1, West beat Southeast 11-0 and West beat Northeast 7-6.

Today, Metro led 4-3 through three innings, but fell behind 7-5 in the fourth. The Southeast tacked on three insurance runs in the sixth, before a Metro rally in the seventh. It scored three times to make the game interesting, but couldn't complete the comeback bid.

Metro plays two games on Wednesday – against the West at 11:30 a.m. and against the Central team at 4:30 p.m.

The baseball tournament runs through Thursday at Bentley.