Somerville's Post 19 Ties Newton's Post 440 In American Legion Baseball

In American Legion baseball, Newton was in Somerville Friday night to play Somerville's own Post 19.

Playing at Trum Field, the hometown team nearly walked away with a win. They had a 3-1 lead going into the seventh inning, but a spurt of offense by Newton's Post 440 in that inning sent the game into extra frames. Ultimately, it was the curfew at Trum Field that ended the game—a tie at 3-3.

“We’ve been behind a couple times,” said Post 440 head coach Manny Connerney. “We played 11 innings the other day, and we came from behind three times. And we won the game. They’re (Post 440) a pretty good hitting club. The beginning of the game, that guy had them a little mesmerized or something.” 

"That guy" was Post 19 pitcher Tom Simas, who went five innings, striking out 10 batters, scattering three hits and surrendering one run. 

“I have four starting pitchers,” said Post 19 head coach Jim McCune. “He’s one of them. That’s going to have to be what carries us all year. He did a good job.”

Newton fielding woes allowed Somerville to notch the first runs of the game in the bottom of the second. 

After Jimmy McCune was walked, he reached second base on a wild pickoff attempt by Post 440 pitcher Dylan Carnes. The hurler then struck out the next batter. He appeared to be out of the inning when he tallied a third strike on Dallas O’Brien, but the ball got past Newton catcher Jesse Feldstein.

O’Brien reached first and kept on going to second. The throw there missed its mark, allowing McCune to score. O’Brien would be brought home as Sean Simas doubled to left. That gave Post 19 the early 2-0 lead.

“That one run there was just ridiculous, like a Little League game,” said Connerney. “That’s not indicative of how this team plays. The thing is, we’re short a couple of players. We had these guys playing off positions, which is tough.”

Post 440 responded in the next stanza with Carnes helping his own cause. He singled to left, driving TJ Quinn across the plate to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Somerville would get that run back in the bottom of the inning by playing small ball. Eddie Diaz belted a single to right on a hit-and-run play, allowing Jonathan Barry to reach third. He would come around to score on a Sammy Evers ground-out to short. 

The score remained the same until the top of the seventh when Newton’s Jack St. Clair scored on an error. Moments later, Hector Coscione smacked a single to left, driving in Borja Jones to tie the game. Alexandre Joyce also attempted to score, but was thrown out, ending the inning. 

“We had it until the last inning, but they came back and battled,” said McCune. “But we battled all night. We left a lot of guys on base, could have had a bigger lead early, put the game away, but we didn’t. We’re young. First year for a lot of us. We’re getting better each game.”