Malden East Outruns Melrose Jimmy Fund Team

In the end, the speed, pitching and defense of the Malden East 9-year-old team proved to be too much to overcome for the Melrose National B-team in a game at Kierstead Park in Malden on Thursday evening, which kicked off the final weekend of this summer's Jimmy Fund youth baseball tournament.

Zach McGuire started the game for Melrose and, despite pitching a solid 2 and 1/3 innings, was unable to keep the Malden bats at bay in a game that eventually ended by mercy rule. Through a combination of good hits and relentless stealing on the base paths, the Malden team took an early lead and never looked back.

The Melrose bats were mostly silent for the first few innings as the hard-throwing Malden starting pitcher came out strong with consecutive 1-2-3 innings in which he struck out the side. Melrose had some chances in the middle innings when they forced several walks, but in the end were unable to score despite getting a runner to third base in the 3rd inning and loading the bases with one out in the 4th.  

In both cases, a close play at the plate went in Malden's favor and kept the hard-fighting Melrose 9-year olds off the scoreboard. Relief pitchers Henry Macdonald and Alex Soto did their best to keep the game from getting too far out of hand, but the Malden players were patient at the plate, relentless on base and eventually put victory out of reach for Melrose.

Despite the game's outcome in what has proven to be a winless summer for the Melrose 9-year-old B-Team, head coach and manager Brian Morris was in high spirits after the game.

"The outcome of the game isn't important for us," Morris said. "What's more important is the kids get to play summer baseball. They all show up to practice, they're playing much better now than they were at the beginning of the season, you can tell their hearts are in it, and we're getting tons of support from parents and grandparents who all show up to watch the games no matter where we play."

But the most important part of it all for Morris, whose sister passed away from leukemia as a child, is raising support and awareness for the Jimmy Fund.

"In this tournament, when it comes down to it, it's not about winning or anyone's ego.  It's all about raising money for the Jimmy Fund," he said. Over the course of the summer, team has raised over $400 between player donations and collections at each game.

Morris also said the team was one of the youngest in the tournament with four 8-year-olds on the roster, and hopes that playing with the older kids will let these youngsters gain some valuable baseball experience and help improve their skills.  

Assistant coaches for the team this season were Bill Macdonald, Steve Bain, and Steve Spencer. The roster of twelve included Theo Morris, Adam Bain, Henry Macdonald, Kyle Norton, Sean Spencer, Alexander Gillis, Reggie Robinson, Zach McGuire, Riley Wilson, Michael Sickler, Joey Shields, and Alex Soto.

The Melrose 9-year-old B-Team will finish up their season at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in an inter-city rivalry match against the Melrose 9-year-old A-Team at Conant Park. For a complete list of upcoming games, check out  Melrose National Little League Calendar.