Yesterday the one-win Arlington American Legion baseball team welcomed 3-4 Natick to Spy Pond Field hoping to turn things around, but Natick got off to an early lead and never relinquished it, winning 7-4.
“These guys were good,” Natick coach Jeff Ward said of Arlington. “I tip my hat to them. They put up a good fight. They didn’t give up when they were down early. But we have to play a little tighter defense and get some more clutch hits for when we play teams like Sudbury, Lowell and Newton, who are in our division and really whacking the ball well now.”
Robert Shea got the start for Arlington and was little wild early. He walked second baseman Dan Hurley to lead off the game. Third baseman Derek Reddy (2-5 with a double and a triple, two RBI) reached on a fielder’s choice before shortstop Matt Sefton walked. Natick starting pitcher Brett Farrell (2-2, two walks) then helped himself get an early lead when he singled in Reddy. Right fielder Derek Kane singled to knock in Sefton, and Natick was up, 2-0. After an infield single by Cody Ward loaded the bases, She bared down and got Mike Dunlap to pop out to short before striking out catcher Alex Benson with the bases loaded, three of the 10 runners Natick would leave on base during the game.
Find out what's happening in Natickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
“We usually get ourselves into that one bad inning,” Arlington coach Connor Bishop said. “It’s tough to come back putting ourselves in a hole.”
Natick scored two more runs in the second and once more in the fourth, extending their lead to 5-0. Arlington, on the other hand, wasn’t able to get anything going until the fifth, when they scored three runs to close within two. But Natick tacked on a couple more in the seventh to extend their lead to 7-3, and Arlington could only manage to scrape together one in the bottom half of the final frame.
Find out what's happening in Natickfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Win or lose, both coaches seemed hesitant to extend a great amount of praise to their teams. Ward and Bishop see a lot of room for improvement. For Ward, he wants to see his team get those runners in who have been left on base. Bishop said his team needs to stop digging themselves into such a big hole. Pitching is also a concern for Arlington, as they have been walking too many hitters.
Natick hosts North Chelmsford today and Billerica on Thursday. Arlington hosts Malden on Friday.
