Walpole Legion Baseball Team Holds Off Norfolk For Win

On paper this should have been a one-sided game.

Walpole sitting atop the District 6 West American Legion Baseball standings tied with Norwood, while its opponent (Norfolk) found itself in the basement of the league. 

What the fans got on this hot and humid night was a heck of a baseball game with Walpole eventually grabbing the victory, 7-4, Saturday.

While the two teams were separated by a single run through five innings of play it wasn’t quite that close in the early part of the contest. 

Holding onto a 1-0 lead after one, Walpole would push across three runs on two hits in the second inning and would increase their lead to 5-0 in the top of the third leaving fans to wonder how bad this one was going to get, especially since Walpole beat up on Norfolk 10-0 in an earlier meeting.

Norfolk pitcher Mike Capobianco settled down after giving up the fifth run, while his teammates got the offense going. In fact, it was Capobianco, himself, that started the rally in the bottom of the third.

Following the Capobianco single, Joe Presti and Matt Ferreira also reached via the single. Christian Cooke knocked in the first Post 335 run with a fielder’s choice that erased Ferreira at second. Jared Clement would chase home the second run with an RBI single and Cooke would beat the throw home for the third run on a missed suicide squeeze bunt attempt.

Capobianco went the distance for Norfolk in the loss. Norfolk Coach Bill Lagos couldn’t have been prouder of his right hander’s performance.

“It’s what you look for in a veteran like him who’s been here for three years,” Lagos said. “For someone to come out and say give me the ball and take control was big. Down 5-0 he could have easily said I’m done, but he didn’t. “

Walpole Coach Chris Costello agreed with Lagos’ assessment.

“They did a good job and certainly came to compete tonight, especially their starting pitcher,” the Walpole skipper said. “Down 5-0, he goes out and pitches a complete game, giving us all that we can handle while giving his team a chance.”

Capobianco allowed seven runs on eight hits, while walking six and fanning four in the loss. His counterpart Joe Guarino scattered nine hits while allowing four runs. He fanned three and walked three in his 4.2 innings of work. 

Guarino was taken out of the game in the fifth following an RBI single off the bat of Mike Agnello and a Corey Chan single. Jimmy Smith came on in relief and got out of the inning without any more damage by fanning Mike Kozak.

Smith closed out the game by retiring all seven batters he faced, while Walpole added single runs in the sixth and seventh innings to account for the final outcome.  

Lincoln Griffin knocked in the sixth inning run with a single, while Matt Bender trotted around the bases in the seventh on errors. Bender reached via a throwing error, stole  second and move onto third when catcher's throw sailed into the outfield before scoring  on a passed ball.

Costello praised his pitchers in the hard-fought victory over Norfolk.

“We had two young guys pitch tonight and they both did well,” Costello said. “We play infield defense and with outfield speed we can run down just about everything. If our pitchers throw strikes, they’re going to have a chance at being successful.”

At the plate, Walpole was led by Bender, who went 2-3 with two runs scored and one knocked in, while Matt Lavanchy, John Adams, Troy Salvatore and Mike Rando all had RBI singles. Clement and Agnello each had RBI, but it was a late game addition that orchestrated the Norfolk offense. Presti went 3-4 (all singles) and scored run
in defeat.

“He wasn’t scheduled to start for us tonight; he was to have the night off due to an injury. At 2 o’clock this afternoon he was not in the lineup, but reached out and asked if he could take a shot at playing,” Lagos said. “I told him to take it easy and we’ll see how he felt as the game went along. He opens the game with a single and tries to stretch it into a double, where I had to tell him again to go easy. From there he goes 3-4 on a night he was not going to play, he’s a gritty, gritty kid.”

Both teams will have the day off and return to work on Sunday evening. Walpole will host Brookline Monday night, while Norfolk travels to Norwood, where they will be the host team.