Melrose – Lexington used a six-run second inning to power its way to a 10-6 win over Melrose Thursday night at Morelli Field.
The victory evened the best of three semifinal series at 1-1. Game three is Friday night in Lexington with first pitch at 8:00 pm.
The first five Blue Sox batters in the second inning reached base via hit or walk with Matt Chatelle closing out the sequence with a three-run home to center, his first in a Blue Sox uniform. Andrew Selima started the rally with a double to right. Cam Meyer, who homered in game one, doubled down the leftfield line and the game was tied at 1-1. Mike Khoury walked, Alex Voitik singled to score Meyer and Chatelle went deep. Americans’ starter Ronnie Luke recorded two outs, but Dom Zaher drove one well over the fence in left for a solo home run and a 6-1 lead. It was Zaher’s third career postseason home run, all which have been hit at Morelli Field.
Lexington starter Robbie Cobb (1-0) benefited from the offensive outbreak. He gave up a first inning run on singles by Pat Costigan, John Jennings and with two outs Aidan Barry who drove in Costigan. Cobb stranded runners in the second and third innings before getting a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. The fourth was part of six straight Melrose batters set down by Cobb before the Americans final broke through in the fifth.
With one out, Costigan (his second hit) singled, Jennings singled, Bright singled to score Costigan. Jennings scored on a wild pitch and Gianni Zarilli hit a sacrifice fly to right to make it 10-4. Barry’s double ended the night for Cobb. Sean Mahan came in and gave up a single to Scott Searles that scored Barry and it was 10-5.
Cobb pitched 4.2 innings, giving up 9 hits, 5 runs, no walks and three strikeouts. It was the second straight year he pitched in an elimination game for Lexington. He pitched in game three against Andre in last season’s semifinal series and went 4.2 innings, giving up 2 hits, an unearned run and struck out two.
Zaher lead the Blue Sox 11-hit attack by going 4-for-4 with 2 runs, 3 RBI, a double, and home run. He doubled in his only at bat in game one and now has five straight hits in two games.
Lexington added four more runs in the fourth to take a 10-1 lead. The Sox loaded the bases on a walk to Voitik, a single by Jesse McCullough and Ernie Little getting hit by a pitch. With two outs and Zaher at the plate the Blue Sox scored two runs on a ball that didn’t leave the infield. With the runners in motion Zaher hits a one-hop ground ball to short. Zarilli corrals it and throws to second for the third out. Because the runners were in motion with the pitch, Voitik scored easily from third, McCullough scores from second and Little ends up on third as he was past the bag when Melrose made the attempt for the force out. Zaher scores the 10th and final run on an error.
Following Cobb on the hill for Lexington was Sean Mahan, Borja Jones-Berasaluce and Manny Delcarmen. The trio combined to pitch 2.1 innings, giving up one hit, an unearned run, walked and struck out one batter.
Melrose starter Ronnie Luke (0-1) pitched 2 innings giving up 6 hits, 6 runs, walked and struck out one. Christian Loescher and Nick Colucci pitched the final five innings giving up 5 hits, 4 runs, walked 2 and struck out 6.

From the Stat Sheet – The teams combined for 22 hits and 16 runs a night after knocking out 25 hits and scoring 12 runs in game one. The two home runs by Lexington give them 20 home runs in 24 playoff games at Morelli.

Written by Bruce Hack, Lexington Media Relations Director

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Lexington – Melrose opened its semifinal series with a 7-5 road win over Lexington Wednesday night.
Game two of the series is Thursday night in Melrose with a 7:30 pm start time.
Down 4-2 in the top of the fifth the Americans scored three times to take the lead for good at 5-4.
John Jennings doubled to drive in Scott Searles (single) and Pat Costigan (single)to knot the score at 4-4. Jennings gave the Americans the lead when he scored on an RBI single by cleanup hitter Gianni Zarrilli.
Aidan Barry doubled to start the fifth. It was the fifth straight inning the Melrose leadoff hitter begin with a hit and the third time the hit was a double. Barry moved to third on an infield out and came home on a pinch-hit single by David Hunter for a 6-4 lead and an important insurance run.
There were three ties and three lead changes as the teams swapped runs in the first four innings. The second inning was the only one in which neither team scored.
Offense was in big supply as the teams combined for 12 runs, 25 hits, 7 doubles, and a home run. By the end of the third Lexington lead 4-2 and the teams had 15 hits between them.
Americans’ leadoff hits Costigan had three hits on the night and scored three times. He got the night started with a double in the first. Jennings infield single moved him to third and he scored on Cory Bright’s infield out for a 1-0 advantage.
Lexington struck back quickly in its half of the first.
Pete John went the opposite way and singled to left to start off the Blue Sox. Josue Feliciano followed with a bunt single and Julian Alvarez singled through the left side to load the bases with no outs. Andrew Selima delivered with a double to right plating John and Feliciano and it was 2-1 Sox.
The Americans answered in the top of the third. Costigan had a leadoff single and stole second to move into scoring position. With one out, Bright singled through the right side and drove in his second run of the game to tie it at 2-2.
Lexington replied quickly in the bottom of the frame. With 2 outs Selima singled to center. Cam Meyer drove a 3-1 pitch over the center field fence for his first post season home run that give the Blue Sox a 4-2 lead.
After falling behind 6-4 Lexington got within a run with another two-out no one on base rally in the sixth.
Meyer walked and then came all the way around to score on Dom Zaher’s double along the left field line that dropped in amongst the leftfield, shortstop and third baseman.
Melrose pushed the lead back to two runs with a run in the top of the seventh. Jack Beverly led off with a walk, the sixth American to reach base leading off the inning. He went to third on Scott Searles single to right and scored on a sacrifice fly by Hunter, for his second RBI of the game.
Starting pitchers Bobby Tramondozzi (Americans) and Jake Vesling (Blue Sox) took some bruises in the game. In the 10 combined innings pitched, six for Tramondozzi, they gave up 10 runs, 22 hits, walked one and struck out 11.
Tramondozzi earned the win, his first career postseason victory for Melrose. After being tagged for eight hits in the first three innings, he only gave up two over his last three innings. The Americans usual closer walked one and struck out seven.
Nick Colucci pitched a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts for the save.
Vesling took the loss for Lexington, going four innings, 12 hits, 5 runs, no walks and a strikeout.
The Americans win was the first time a #1 seed had lost its opening playoff game since August 8, 2018 when Albrandis beat Lexington 5-2 in game one of the semis.
It was not a good night for the top seeds in the Intercity League playoffs as #2 seed Middlesex lost 6-5 to #3 Andre.
Since 2006 the #1 and #2 seeds had not lost their opening playoff game until Wednesday night.

Written by Bruce Hack, Lexington Blue Sox Director of Media Relations

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ICL fans can now watch both the Chiefs-Expos and Americans-Blue Sox series. All games will be streamed live.

For the Chiefs-Expos series go to:
http://youtube.com/c/LocalSportsProductions

For the Americans-Blue Sox series go to youtube.com and then Blue Sox Baseball Network.

The Melrose Americans beat the Reading Bulldogs 5-2 in the ICL Regular Season final on Sunday at Morelli Field.

With the Melrose win, the Andre Chiefs and Americans finished with identical 12-12-1 records. The first two tiebreakers, number of wins and head to head (the teams were 2-2-1 against each other in 2022) failed to break the tie.

A coinflip was used and the Chiefs won and will receive the #3 seed and face the #2 Middlesex Expos in a best of three series starting on Wednesday.

The #4 Americans will host the #5 Bulldogs in a play-in game on Tuesday at 7:30 PM at Morelli Field. The winner of that game will advance to play the #1 Lexington Blue Sox in Lexington on Wednesday at 8:00 PM.

In the Americans’ 5-2 Sunday win, Mike Peters (1-1) got the victory and Bobby Tramondozzi picked up his third save. Gianni Zarrilli led the way at the plate with a homer and two RBI’s and Nick Longo knocked in two runs. Jack Morin had a solo homer for the Bulldogs.

Mike Khoury and Matt Chatelle each had a two-run double in the top of eighth inning to break a scoreless tie and lead the Blue Sox to a 5-1 extra inning win over the Reading Bulldogs in Lexington. Steve Bangs (1-1) picked up the win with four innings in relief of starter Sean Mahan. Bulldogs starter Adam Vining went 7.1 innings, gave up only five hits, and struck out seven.

At Maplewood, the Malden Maddogs overcame a 6-3 fifth inning deficit on the way to edging the Melrose Americans 9-8. Quinton Copeland (1-0) got the win in relief of starter Matt Tyman. Joe Klingensmith picked up the save. Jake Hatch and Lawrence Tang each drove in two runs for the Maddogs. Shawn Nestor, John Jennings, and Cory Bright had two hits each for the Americans.

On Friday, the Andre Chiefs host the Blue Sox at Maplewood at 8:00 PM and the Americans visit the Middlesex Expos at Trum Field in Somerville at 8:30 PM.

The regular season concludes on Sunday when the Americans and Reading Bulldogs meet at Morelli Field at 4:00 PM.

The ICL’s Play-in game, pitting the #4 and #5 seeds, is scheduled to be played next Tuesday. The semifinals will start on Wednesday.