Wakefield Clips Watertown Reds' Offense in Intercity League Game

For the first three innings of Tuesday night's Intercity League game between Watertown and Wakefield, it seemed like the first team to get a run would be the only team to score.

A pitcher's duel between the Reds' Mike Antonellis and the Merchants' James Ramsey quickly turned one sided after the visitors put up an eight-run fourth inning en route to a 11-0 final at Bentley University.

Ramsey completely shut down the Reds lineup, giving up just one infield hit in the second inning and holding Watertown to just three base runners for the entire game.

"We just ran into a pitcher that had everything going for him tonight," Reds Manager Joe Chiodo. "We didn't really give him too many tough at bats and he had all his stuff working. Just a tough night."

What made Ramsey's performance even more impressive was the fact that the Reds were coming off an 11-run outing on Monday night in a win over the Medford Americans.

Offensively, the Merchants were lead by Andy Hartung, Brooks Townsend, Jason Roth, and Lorenzo and Joseph Papa.

After three quick innings in which the only run scored came on a triple to left by Roth followed by a ground out to short by Joseph Papa in the top half of the inning, the Merchants opened up on Antonellis.

Steve Langone and Lorenzo Papa lead off the fourth inning with walks. After a wild pitch allowed each man to move up a bag, Hartung ripped an RBI single to center making it 3-0. Townsend and Joseph then each ripped a single and ground-rule double respectively to make it 5-0.  

A botched play at the plate by the Reds infield allowed another run to score and make it 6-0. Mike Sorrentino then knocked Antonellis out of the game with an RBI single of his own, while Lorenzo drove in another run off of new Reds' pitcher Bill Smeglin.

Roth then scored in the top of the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly to center after leading off with a double down the right field line, finishing the damage for good.

The Reds wouldn't get a base runner after the onslaught until Colin Quirk came in to relieve Ramsey in the final frame and threw a couple walks to start the seventh before finding a way to end it.

"It was just a good night for us offensively, we found a way to keep the line moving and guys did their job at the plate grinding out at bats," said Merchants skipper Dave Ellegood. "They're a good team and putting up that amount of runs isn't easy. It didn't hurt that we had James give us the effort on the mound that he did tonight either."

The second place Merchants return to action on Wednesday while the Reds will continue to fight for a playoff spot, playing their first of 10 remaining games on Thursday against the Testa Corp. Bombers at Bentley. 

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