Photo Gallery: LHS Loses to Acton-Boxboro, Ends Magical Season

While the Lexington High School baseball team was steamrolling the competition en route to a 20-0 regular season record and a No. 1 seed in postseason play, many teams took notice.

Apparently, the Colonials of Acton-Boxboro Regional High School were not one of them.

“Every day on the lineup card, I write, ‘It’s all about us,’” said Patrick Grucela, coach of the Colonials. “I’ve done that for the past three or four weeks. We focus not on the opponent, but just on being the best we can be.”

Well, Grucela’s words rang true Monday afternoon at Lexington’s Lincoln Field, where his eighth-seeded Colonials toppled the top-ranked Minutemen, 9-6.

With the win, Acton-Boxboro moves on to face Lawrence Thursday night in a semifinal matchup at Lowell’s Alumni Field. And, with the loss, Lexington bows out of the MIAA Baseball North Division 1 tournament, an earlier-than-expected end to an impressive 21-1 campaign.

“We did have a great season,” LHS coach Tom O’Grady said after the game. “I know we’re disappointed now we didn’t get it done today, but that doesn’t diminish the terrific season we had.”

In taking down the Minutemen, the Colonials received solid pitching performances from a pair of seniors and benefitted from a seven-run explosion in the fifth inning.

Trailing 4-1 after LHS plated three in the home half of the fourth, Acton-Boxboro batted around in the top of the fifth, combining timely hitting and a handful of Minuteman miscues to score seven and take a lead they would never relinquish.

After registering six strikeouts over the first four innings, LHS junior hurler Demetri Monovoukas came unwound in the fifth.  

Two errors and fielder’s choice and a sharp single to center loaded the bases as AB’s senior shortstop Dana Flood stepped to the plate. Flood singled to left, scoring junior Ryan McDonald, who had reached on a fielder’s choice. Junior catcher Garret Rosich was not far behind, sliding in safely ahead of the tag after a passed ball to the next batter.

A sacrifice fly, a walk and another passed ball later and the Colonials had put another run on the scoreboard and a runner on second base. A single by senior third baseman Chris Murphy plated Devin Santilli, the senior first baseman who reached on a walk and took second on a wild pitch that scored Flood.

O’Grady then brought in junior Chris Shaw in relief of Monovoukas, but he surrendered two more runs on back-to-back doubles by Acton-Boxboro seniors Brian Bowler and Jared Tamulynas, before escaping the inning.

“Our bats just came alive,” said Grucela of his squad's seven-run fifth. “We’re not a team that scores seven runs in an inning, so I just kind of had to stay out of the way and let it happen.”

In the bottom of the fifth, AB senior Chris Sirois took the mound in relief of senior Tyler Dickinson, who allowed four runs over four innings, three of which came on a pair of RBI singles from LHS senior Will Marcal in the first and fourth innings. 

Shaw and Sirois both settled in, with Shaw allowing only one more run in the seventh, and Sirois stranding runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.

The Minutemen could not capitalize on scoring opportunities in the fifth, sixth and seventh, despite a walk and hit-by-pitch by junior Connor Murray, doubles by junior Levi Mattingly and senior Ben Ruxin and a single from Monovoukas. All five runners were left stranded.

The baby blue-and-grey finally broke through with two down in the bottom of the eighth, when Marcal stroked a single to center and came around to score on Shaw’s double to deep right. But the rally fizzled when senior Charlie Guthrise grounded out to short.

The Minutemen tacked on another in the final frame. Murray led off with a ground rule double, but his deep drive was the last ball to leave the infield. Murray came around to score on the second of three consecutive ground-outs to end the game.  

In an interview after the game, O’Grady, the LHS coach, would not blame the loss on his team’s sloppy fifth inning.

“We still had the opportunity, but we just couldn’t get the timely hits when we had the guys in scoring position,” he said. “Acton-Boxboro put a lot of balls in play and, in a game of inches, we came pretty close to getting to some balls and didn’t, and we hit some balls hard but right at people.”