Announcement
McKenna and McNeill Dominate as Chiefs-Tanners Play to 1-1 Tie
Medford, MA- Huskins Field has always been known as a pitcher’s ballpark and it can be a very imposing landscape, especially for right-handed hitters.
When there are two good pitchers on the mound and a strong wind is blowing in, it becomes a downright monster!
Such was the case on Thursday night when the Tanners Max McKenna and the Chiefs Ryan McNeill hooked up in classic pitcher’s duel. The net offensive totals for both teams were; two runs, one earned, and five hits. The end result equaled a 1-1 tie that took a brief one hour and twenty-three minutes to complete.
It was the eighth league game that ended in a tie so far this season and it becomes another glowing example for the ICL to consider adopting an extra innings format next season. The Chiefs other tie this year was a 2-2 contest with Wakefield that was completed in an hour and twelve minutes.
The Chiefs scored their only run of the night in the bottom of the first inning when Catcher Bob McCarthy walked, stole second and scored on Justin Crisafulli’s RBI single to right-center.
The Tanners tied the game in the top of the fifth. Keegan DeNapoli drew a leadoff walk. Derek Dettore followed with a seeing eye grounder between first baseman J.P. Pollard and second baseman Peter Copa. Copa made a nice play to get to the ball but his throw to get Dettore was wide of McNeill who was covering the bag. The play was scored as a hit and an error was charged to Copa on the throw which allowed DeNapoli to go to third. Tanners catcher Jon Smart immediately cashed in when he followed with a sacrifice fly to left-center that scored DeNapoli and tied the game at 1-1.
Other than Dettore’s infield hit, McNeill allowed just another infield single in the fifth inning.
After Crisafulli’s RBI single in the first inning, the only other hits the Chiefs could manage against McKenna were a Bercume two out sixth inning single and a Macrina single with one out in the seventh.
McNeill, who received all-Northeast 10 honors this past spring for Merrimack, struck out three and saw his Chiefs record go to 1-1-1.
McKenna, who was 3-3 with an ERA of 3.03 in twelve appearances for Amherst College in 2009, also struck out three and hit a batter. McKenna was named to the ICL all-star team yesterday. He has been lights out so far this summer for the Tanners. The Lexington native has surrendered just three earned runs in 23.1 innings of work, struck out 17 and has an impressive ERA of 0.90.
