By Bruce Hack
Lexington Blue Sox
Media Relations Director
Lexington – On a picture-perfect day for watching baseball the Intercity League treated its fans to three great games on the Gerie DeAngelis Memorial Day of Baseball.
All three games are played at Lexington High School in memory of Blue Sox manager Rick DeAngelis’ late wife, who was very involved with the Blue Sox and the Intercity League.
The team that scores usually goes on to win the game. Today that proved to be true as all three games were won by the team that scored first.
The games began with a noon start between the 0-2 Andre Chiefs and the 1-0 Middlesex Expos. Seven innings the Chiefs had their first win of the young season, 5-3.
The Chiefs sent veteran pitcher Tim Dunphy to the mound and he led his teammates to a 5-3 win. The southpaw pitched 6 1/3 innings, giving up 7 hits, 3 runs, walked one and struck out eight. He retired six straight and 8 of 9 batters in the third through fifth innings.
The Chiefs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. With two outs Andrew Caulfield and Ryan Noone each walked and Joe Bove was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Caulfield scored on a wild pitch and Kyle DeRoma’s double drove in Noone and Bove for the 3-0 lead.
In the second the Chiefs added two more runs. Christian Rosatti was walked with one out and scored on an RBI single by Juan Parra. After a walk to Teddy Dziuba and a strikeout Noone singled to scored Parra for a 5-0 lead.
The Expos started chipping away at the lead in the bottom of the second. Eduardo Colemenares doubled with one out and scored on a two-out single by Amulfo Gonzalez to make it 5-1 Chiefs.
Middlesex cut the lead by 5-3 in the bottom of the fifth on RBI singles by Dionys Quezada in the third, driving in Tom Muizulis, and the fifth that scored Jose Paulino.
Roland Mendez came in in relief in the second inning for Middlesex and held the Chiefs to two hits with five strikeouts, giving his teammates a chance to comeback. Mendez set down the final 11 batters he faced, including the side in order in the fourth through sixth innings.
For the Chiefs it was their eighth straight win on Day of Baseball, all as the road team. This was the Expos first game on the Day of Baseball.
Game Two featured the host Lexington Blue Sox, won 3-0, versus the Malden Maddogs, who were the home team.
Both starting pitchers hung up zeros through the first four innings. Lexington finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth.
Malden starter Matt Tyman had retired nine straight in the second through fifth innings. With one out, Blue Sox George Athanasiadas reached on an error. He moved to second on a wild pitch and with two outs, Jesnel Soto doubled to left for a 1-0 lead and the only run the Sox would need.
Nate Wolf, Eli Perez and Clay Sowell (RBI) singled in the top of sixth to begin the rally. Morgan Brown reached on an error to load the bases. Athanasiadas singled to right to drive in the Blue Sox third and final run.
Lexington started Jack Schwartz pitched five shutout innings, giving up two hits. He walked two and struck out six in his first win of 2022. Steve Bangs and Borja Jones-Berasaluce combined to complete the shutout, the fifth the Blue Sox have recorded on the Day of Baseball.
Lexington’s Jack Schwartz pitches against Malden on Saturday afternoon.
The final game of the day was Melrose against Reading and the Americans picked up their first win of the 2022 season with a 6-3 win.
The Americans struck in the top of the first as Pat Costigan and Jack Beverly walked to start off the game. A nicely turned 4-6-3 double play by the Bulldogs put them an out away from ending the threat. A Reading error allowed Costigan to score for a 1-0 Melrose lead.
The Americans broke the game open with a four run third. Walks again to Costigan and Beverly started the inning. Cory Bright doubled scoring Costigan. Gianni Zarrilli the took one deep over the left field fence for a three-run home run and a 5-0 lead.
The Bulldogs were blanked for four innings, but put a crooked number on the scoreboard in the fifth inning, scoring three runs. Brendan Albert started the rally with a lead off double. Andrew Croteau reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error that Albert came home on. Luke Butler was hit by a pitch to place Bulldogs on first and second with no outs. All of this came off Melrose reliever Greg Johnson. He then got two ground ball outs, the second by Dylan Arnold driving in the second run. A single to left by Joe Cacciatore drove in Butler with the third run of the inning. Mike Peters came in from the Americans bullpen and gave up a single to Patrick Solomon to put Bulldogs on the corners. Peters got the third groundball out of the inning to end the threat.
Mike Nestor started for Melrose and pitched four hitless shutout innings. The lefty walked four and struck out six in his first win. Nestor pitched 1-2-3 innings in the first and third and also picked off a runner in the fourth. He also batted and went 2-for-3. Christian Loeschler pitched a 1-2-3 7th with two strike outs for the save.
Reading starter Graham Seed went three innings, allowing five runs, on two hits, four walks (3 of them scored) and two strikeouts. Seed also hit and walked once.
These two teams met on Day of Baseball in 2015 with Reading winning 11-3. That was the last Bulldogs victory on Day of Baseball, as they have now lost four straight games.
After a day off, four teams return to action on Monday. Melrose travels to Maplewood to take on the Chiefs in an 8 pm start. While Reading goes to Brandeis to take on Middlesex. Malden returns to action on Tuesday as it hosts the Chiefs at Maplewood. The Blue Sox travel to Maplewood on Wednesday to play the Chiefs.
Note- Results for the Day of Baseball are only available since the 2006 season.
