Summer Baseball Roundup, August 22-29

The summer is on its last legs, Irene whips through the region with damaging winds and incessant rain and the Andre Chiefs—fresh off a tumultuous Intercity League semifinal series against the Wakefield Merchants—find themselves in another brutal best-of-five set-to, this time, against the Lexington Blue Sox, who strolled through the ICL regular-season with relative ease and finished on top of the table. 

It appeared that the ICL Championship Series would, for all intents and purposes, be over almost before it began, as the Blue Sox took the first two games by a combined score of 11-1, and seemed a good bet to broom away the Chiefs and lift the trophy for the fifth year in a row—and the eighth in the last ten. 

As of this writing, all bets are off, it would seem, as the Chiefs pulled out a dramatic win in game three to extend their season and keep alive the dream of championship glory. With games four and five (if necessary) originally scheduled for August 29 and 30, but now postponed due to the impact of Hurricane Irene, both teams will get a chance to regroup and attempt to steel their nerves before the potentially conclusive game four.

Here’s a look at how things came to be this way for the last of Medford’s summer baseball teams left standing.

Intercity League Championship Series

The ICL finals kicked off on August 24, and things went decidedly in favor of the Blue Sox at Lexington High. Jared Freni started for the Chiefs and fanned nine, but was out-dueled by the tandem of Mike O’Brien and Tim Lahey, who combined to hold the Chiefs to just three hits, as Lexington took game one, 3-0. Jeff Bercume, Vinny Pennell and Mike Barbati collected hits for the Chiefs, while Dan Graham (2 RBIs) and Justin Wright (RBI) fired the Blue Sox attack.

Things went from bad to worse for the Chiefs in game two, as the Blue Sox pounded their pitching to the tune of an 8-1 blowout at Lexington High. Drew Brzozowski dealt with the Andre offense admirably, while Tim Dunphy and Jake Crawford were roughed up by Lexington’s potent offense. Mike Andre doubled, and Mike DiCato drove in the lone run for the Chiefs. Jeff Vigurs, Dan Capra and Tom Haugh all plated two runs each for Lexington, as the Blue Sox took a commanding 2-0 lead in the five game series, with proceedings set to revert to Pine Banks Park—the Chiefs home field for this series.

Anyone who was bemoaning the lack of drama present in this series prior to game three was most certainly sated by what took place at Pine Banks on August 27.

In a contest that became a classic the moment it went into the books, Barbati sent the Chiefs home as walk-off winners, breaking a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the seventh with a single that scored Andy Cavanaugh with the winning run. It was a remarkable comeback, especially considering the position the Chiefs were in heading into the home half of the seventh.

After Rob Machado and Lexington’s Steve Bodnar took a 1-1 pitcher’s duel into the top of the seventh, the Blue Sox erupted four three runs in the frame and took what looked to be an unassailable 4-1 lead, with only three outs to record to hoist the trophy. But this is the same Chiefs squad that recorded do-or-die wins against the Watertown Reds and Wakefield Merchants en route to the ICL finals, and if recent history has shown anything, it’s that they don’t go down without a fight.

True to form, Matt Boleski led off the home half of the seventh by depositing a Bodnar offering a healthy distance over the right-field fence. Nick Leva stepped into the box next and doubled to right-center. Paul Yanakopulos delivered once again, lining a triple off the right-field fence to score Leva and cut the Blue Sox lead to 4-3. With the tying run at third and the winning run in the batter’s box, Bodnar’s outing was over and Sam Finn was summoned to try and record the three outs Lexington needed, with a slim-looking one-run lead. Finn nearly got it done, recording the first two outs of the inning before Justin Crisafulli, the ICL’s regular-season batting leader with a .448 average, tied things up with a single to left that scored Yanakopulos, setting up Barbati’s game-winning heroics.