Intercity League edges Yawkey League 3-2, advances to championship
This is the seventh year of the Eastern Mass Amateur Baseball Classic between the Intercity League, the Park League, the Yawkey League and the Cranberry League. The event was held at BC High’s Monan Park, which is also home to the UMass Boston baseball team.
John Jennings (Melrose) single to center to drive in Dillon Koster (Wakefield), who started the inning with a single, with the winning run in top of the seventh to give the Intercity League a 3-2 win over the Yawkey League and advance to the championship game of the Eastern Mass Amateur Baseball Classic. The Intercity League will face the Cranberry League, a 7-5 winner over the Park League, in the championship game.
Manny Delcarmen (Lexington) came in to close out the game in the bottom of the seventh and did so facing only three batters thanks to a double play and a ground out.
In a back-and-forth game, the Yawkey League struck first scoring a run in the second inning. Hecter Cosciono hit one just inside the leftfield foul pole for a solo home run and a 1-0 lead.
The Intercityers tied the game in the third when with two outs Charlie Huegi (Melrose) walked. He scored on Bobby Losano’s (Wakefield) single to center. They took a 2-1 lead two innings later when Teddy Dziuba (Alibrandis) walked with one out. Nick Valdario (Somerville) went in as a pinch runner for Dziuba.. Valdario went to third on a single by Jennings. He scored on a sacrifice fly to Huegi for the 2-1 lead.
The Yawkies responded in the sixth to tie the game on a Jake Keen RBI single that scored Alex Wong (single).
Ben Gottesman (Reading) earned the win for the Intercity League despite giving up the tying run in the sixth. He recorded a strikeout in his inning of work.
Melrose’s Kyle Autillo pitched the fourth and fifth innings holding the Yawkey League hitless and striking out two.
Wakefield’s Joe Maguire had the only 1-2-3 inning in the third for the ICL pitchers.
Losano and Jennings each had two hits, accounting for two-thirds of ICL’s six hits in the game.
The win gave the ICL a 7-3 record in the seven years of the EMABC, the best of the four leagues that play in the event.
By Bruce Hack, ICL correspondent