Charpie Pens Solid Win for Weston Legion

Clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, Weston Legion baseball coach Justin Miller declined calling in a relief pitcher despite Robert Charpie facing a runner on second base and just one out.

He knew his player.

Charpie forced a fly out and then sent Jonathan Barry down swinging for his 12th strikeout of a complete-game performance. That sealed a 4-3 victory over Somerville Post 19 at Trum Field Sunday night.

“He battled out there,” Miller said. “That’s who he is. He grinds down. In intense situations, he never thinks of giving up. He throws the next pitch whether it was a bad call, a bad play in the field, or a bomb hit.”

With the victory, Weston improves to 2-4 on the season. Meanwhile, Somerville slips to 2-4-1.

The winning run arrived moments earlier as the Wildcats scored in the top of the seventh.

With one out, Charpie slapped a single to left, and then stole second base. After Nick Neu popped out to center, Post 19 pitcher Kevin Foley attempted to intentionally walk Tom Wells (2-for-3). One of his throws was wild allowing Charpie to advance to third.

Miller elected for a little trickery once Wells reached first. As Kevin Foley was about to pitch, he sent Wells to second drawing him into a run-down. While Post 19's attention was diverted, Charpie  scurried home and scored before the throw reached.

“You know, it worked,” said Miller. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”

To start the scoring, Matt Engel crossed home plate in the third inning when Foley misfired to first base on a Charpie soft grounder down the line.

Post 19 responded in the bottom of the stanza as John Foley golfed a bloop single into left scoring Reed Casey.

The two teams again traded runs in the fourth inning.

During the top portion, Thomas Russo smacked a single to center driving in Dean Petzing. One batter later, Noah Tocci scored on a bizarre play in which an infield rule was called that eventually resulted in two outs. That gave the Wildcats the 3-1 lead.

But Somerville would grab those two runs back with Kevin Foley helping his own cause with a two-run double.

Run production has been problematic for Weston, but Miller hopes Sunday's victory will prove to be a momentum builder.

“We just haven’t had timely hitting,” he said. “We’ve gotten guys on; we’ve just stranded too many runners. But when our pitchers battle and throw strikes, I think we can beat anybody. It’s just a question of getting our hitting going. Hopefully this will give us a little momentum going forward.”