Lexington Takes Early Semifinals Series Lead

The two flyballs he misplayed during the top of the sixth inning were still very much bothering Lexington Blue Sox right fielder Dan Graham when he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the inning. You could see it in the stone-like focus he brought into the batter's box.

Graham, the reigning Intercity League MVP, fumbled two would-be outs, allowing the Wakefield Merchants to pull within a run late in Game 1 of the semifinal series against the Blue Sox. So Graham was sure to make up for the miscues at the plate.

He promptly cracked a deep triple to right-center field. Pinch runner Dan Capra later scored on Ben Hewett's single to spark a four-run inning and pace Lexington to a 6-1 win and a 1-0 series lead in the best-of-five set.

"Determined to do something to make up for the mistakes," Graham said of his triple.

The two dropped balls were obviously still eating at Graham as he plunked his cap on the first row of bleachers at Lexington High School and went straight for his bat in the middle of the sixth.

The first squirted out of Graham's glove as he went to transfer it to his throwing hand. It appeared he controlled it enough to record the out, but the second-base umpire thought otherwise. That loaded the bases for the Merchants with one out and Lexington leading 2-0.

Graham's next miscue proved more painful. Running straight in to track down Mike Sorrentino's flyball, Graham tried to sneak a peak at the runner ready to tag up at third base when the ball tipped off his glove. Pinch runner Dom Sorrentino scored, but the play was not ruled an error as the Blue Sox still recorded the rare 9-6 putout at second base.

"Stuff happens," Lexington starting pitcher Matt Karis said. "You just have to roll with it and not let it affect you."

Graham said he was using a new glove in the field, but didn't want to use that as an excuse for botching two plays he normally would have made.

"They're not easy plays because I'm pretty much running in full tilt and thinking about the runner tagging on top of that," he said. "If I had time to get under it it's a routine play, but when you're running in full speed like that it's tougher."

His triple in the bottom of the inning – his second hit of the day – certainly made amends. Graham tweaked a hamstring rounding second base and Capra came on to pinch run. By that time, Graham had done his part.

Hewett later scored when Matt McEvoy reached on an error. Steve Gath and McEvoy came across on Eric Poling's double.

It was an interesting night for Poling. In addition to the two-run double, Poling scored Lexington's second run on a play not often seen.

The catcher hit a bloop popup that dropped between three Merchants behind third base in the third inning. No one covered third on the play, so Poling made a break for the bag. Wakefield left fielder Matt Russo was forced to hold the ball as pitcher James Ramsey tried to beat Poling.

But the throw bounced wide of the base and Poling trotted home. The official scoring was a triple with a throwing error on Russo to allow the run to score.

"That's what you'd see on a Disney show," Blue Sox manager Rick DeAngelis joked. "It was a Disney show home run."

Lexington scored its first run of the game in the second inning without the benefit of a base hit. Hewett walked, stole second, went to third on Gath's flyout to center field and scored on a wild pitch.

"You love to take advantage of miscommunication and mistakes that other people make," DeAngelis said. "It's playoff baseball and you got to take any run you can get."

Almost lost in all the craziness was the crazy-good performance of Lexington starter Matt Karis. The Blue Sox's ace pitched a complete game with the one run allowed on four hits to go with eight strikeouts. He didn't walk a batter in improving to 9-0 this season.

Karis was perfect until Steve Langone led off with an infield hit in the fifth inning.

Early on, Karis could do no wrong. He struck out the side in the third inning and recorded at least one strikeout in every inning but the sixth.

"Eric (Poling) did a great job of mixing stuff up," Karis said. "We really tried to focus on getting in on hitters tonight."

The best-of-five semifinal series is back at LHS Friday night for Game 2 with a 7:45 p.m. start time. Game 3 is scheduled for Saturday at Wakefield's Walsh Field. A time has yet to be announced.