Medfield Baseball Scores 3 Runs in Sixth Inning to Beat Holliston

The Medfield High School baseball team showed its resiliency Friday afternoon in a 5-3, comeback victory over Holliston High School at Curt Schilling Field.

The win was Medfield’s third straight in the Tri-Valley League to start the season, getting an early jump on the competitive league to sit atop the standings.

“I can say none [of the TVL victories] have been easy to this point,” said Medfield head coach Matt Marenghi. “I lose a lot of weight during the season. I would like to have a couple of blowouts every now and then to just ease my mind but this is much more gratifying. It is a competitive league and if we are going to compete every game, our objective is to play as long as we can and as a team, and that competitive nature is going to carry us hopefully to the postseason.”

Friday’s victory was sparked by a Medfield 3-run sixth inning after Holliston plated three runs in the top of the frame to take a 3-2 lead over the Warriors.

“I would give some credit to [Holliston],” said Marenghi. “That was a gutsy performance by them. We know Mike [Keleher] is good and they knew it. I think they smelled a little bit of blood and just jumped all over it. A good team is going to do that and they did that. Give them credit for coming back on us.”

Medfield starting pitcher, Mike Keleher was dominant through five innings, hurling a 3-hit shutout while striking out nine Panthers through five frames. But trouble ensued in the top of the sixth as Keleher faced his first jam of the season – allowing three runs in the inning and losing a 2-0 lead before battling back to secure the victory.

“What it says most about Mike is his competitiveness and inability to be shaken when things like that happened,” said Marenghi. “He could have very easily started to get down on himself. I’m proud of that – that he got behind and was the losing pitcher for an inning and then was on the winning side after that.”

After Keleher retired the first batter of the sixth inning, Holliston’s Jake Frechette singled to center. Cato LaCroix followed with a walk and Jonathan Rossini singled to load the bases with one out.

Holliston’s Dave Conners stepped in with the sacs full and hit a dribbler down the third baseline to Medfield’s Thomas Valente, who fielded it on the run but could not get the ball out of his glove to make the play at home or first, resulting in a run for the Panthers and Keleher’s first earned run of the season.

“When [Holliston] had the bases loaded and they hit the dribbler to third – the difference between a better team and a worse team is that they get down on themselves,” said Marenghi. “We basically got the better of [Holliston] and they still scored on us. [Valente] couldn’t make the play one way or another and a bad team will either throw it over the catcher’s head or throw it past the first baseman and we’re not that team. We’re a team that says ‘alright, you got the better of us.’ We bled a little bit but we’re not bleeding all over the place.

“If we had thrown that ball away I’m pretty confident Holliston would have the win. I think that speaks to our mental toughness. Right after that, you’re basically in the same situation you were in prior. You did what you should do but you’re losing. I’m really proud of that moment on how [Medfield] could have taken a knee but they kept competing.”

Holliston’s Matt Jeye followed up with a bases loaded walk that tied the game at two. Stephen Hennessey ended the inning by hitting into a double play to shortstop Brian McCloud, who tossed to second baseman Jim Magrath, who in turn fired down to third baseman Valente but the Holliston runner crossed the plate before the inning was over and the Panthers took a 3-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Holliston’s momentum did not last long as Medfield’s Will Cousins opened the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff infield single hit to short, sparking a 3-run inning. Cousins stole second to get into scoring position for Warriors’ John Buchanan, who doubled to left field, advancing Cousins to third. Keleher earned a walk to load the bases and Valente recorded a fielder’s choice to plate Cousins and tie the game at three.

“We had a couple of key hits there at the end,” said Marenghi. “Guys subbing in for other guys and coming together as a team and put it together.

“Will led off with a single and that sort of got things going. At that time [Holliston] had the momentum but the second we got the hit, we got the momentum back.”

Valente stole second to get into scoring position and Medfield’s Mike Ray blooped one into no man’s land in short left field, dropping it in out of the reach of Holliston’s third baseman, scoring the go-ahead run to give the Warriors a 4-3 advantage. Medfield’s Adam Gil came off the bench and flied out to center to score Valente and plate the game’s final run for a 5-3 Medfield lead.

“We capitalized on a Texas leaguer behind third,” said Marenghi. “We play on the same field so that could have easily been us. I know it’s a tough play on their part. I believe that was Mike Ray just putting the bat on the ball.”

Marenghi gave credit to his bench players that responded to the call in the critical stages of the game and helped secure the team’s comeback.

“The problem that we had and the reason that it was a ball game I think is that we weren’t swinging the bat,” said Marenghi. “We were watching a lot of pitches goes by with men on base. When you put a guy in from the bench hopefully he has something to prove and he’s not going to do it by watching. That’s what I wanted there was someone who was going to swing the bat. Gil Adams, right after [Ray] hit a drive to center and just came up huge.”

Keleher returned to his dominant form in the seventh to retire the side and earn his second victory of the season and the Warriors’ third as a team in as many games.

"I’m very confident in what we are capable of doing," said Marenghi. "I just know the ebon flow of the season and try to stick with these guys and have us stick together. There’s going to be a down time over the course of the season and I’m hoping that it doesn’t put us in a situation where we are going to continue to go down. Hopefully we learn from it and continue to get better. Frankly if we want to do some damage I hope we take some hits during the season rather than the postseason so we can learn from them and take what we know into the postseason."

Medfield (3-0, 3-0) will host non-league opponent, Wellesley, Tuesday at noon at Curt Schilling Field before returning to TVL action on Monday, April 25 at Westwood at 3:45 p.m.