Wellesley Waltzes Past Needham

The Wellesley North U8 Little League summer travel team piled runs on early and often en route to a 9-7 home win over Needham International Monday night at Ouellet field.

"That was an incredible win," said Wellesley coach Gary Todd. "Both teams played extraordinarily well. The kids tried, both sides, and most of all, it was an incredible display of sportsmanship."

The home team relied heavily on the solid pitching of Jay Driver, Will Torence and Joseph Fadule, as well as an offense that compiled 18 hits off Needham pitchers to remain undefeated this summer.

"Well, I was more impressed with the other team because they played better fundamental baseball than us," said Needham coach Steve Donovan. "They are very well coached, very well disciplined and they played great."

Wellesley built an early lead, scoring at least one run in each of the first four innings as their batters did a tremendous job of getting on base, whether it was by drawing walks or hitting high-powered line drives past the Needham defense. 

"They kept their composure, the Wellesley team. They kept their composure running the bases and mounding the ball when we were running the bases, they kept their composure better than we did," said Donovan, "so lesson learned for us is to be more aggressive on the bases and to be more alert and to be more composed as they're running the bases."

Needham starting pitcher Matthew Dougherty surrendered four runs on seven hits and struck out two in the loss.

"I think we have some very good pitching. Matthew Dougherty started out for us and he's a good pitcher and he got through the first two innings," said Donovan. "The measure of a great pitcher, especially at this age, is to struggle through and beat adversity. I thought he did that real well."

The Needham defense faced their share of adversity, making multiple errors in the field.

"We had a couple of instances where we almost made some great plays," said Donovan. "We had opportunities for two or three double plays, but before making the double play we didn't get the first out. So the lesson learned for the kids, we talked about was, that you have to get one out before you make the double play."

Wellesley nearly let the game get away from them in the top of the sixth, with five walks allowing Needham to close within two, 9-7, before Fadule settled down to secure the victory.

"If we can teach anything at this age it is to get into tough situations and fight your way through it whether you win or lose," said Donovan, "So that is one of the major lessons we are teaching in baseball and life."