Andre Chiefs

Lexington, MA- The defending champion Blue Sox knocked off the Chiefs in Lexington on Monday night, 7-1. It was the third time in two weeks that the Sox beat the Chiefs at home. The teams will meet three more times during the regular season, all at Tufts University. 

The Sox runs came in two bunches, scoring three times in the bottom of the first and adding a four spot in the fourth inning.  

Things started well enough for the Chiefs when leadoff man Brendan Pyburn reached on an infield single. Sox starter Tim Bryant then retired the next three batters in a row when Bob McCarthy grounded out, Jeff Bercume flew to center and Dario Pizzano was called out on strikes. 

Lexington went right to work against Chiefs rookie right-hander Rob Machado (UMass-Amherst) in bottom of the first. Machado walked leadoff man Pete Frates and then surrendered consecutive singles to Ross Curley and Dan Graham to load the bases. Steve Gath delivered a sacrifice fly to right scoring Frates for a 1-0 Sox lead. Matt McEvoy drew Machado’s second walk of the inning to re-load the bases and Sean McElroy quickly unloaded them when he delivered a two RBI single to put Lexington in front 3-0. 

Bryant gave up a second inning double to J.P. Pollard and Machado settled down a bit in the bottom of the inning to keep it a 3-0 game. 

Both pitchers got the respective sides in order in third and the Chiefs made a bit of noise in the top of the fourth. Bercume led off with a single to center and Bryant got the first out when he caught Pizzano looking for the second time. Peter Copa then singled to right to put two men on with one away. McEvoy then made the defensive play of the night when he robbed Pollard of extra bases with a diving catch in the left-centerfield gap. The threat went by the boards when Bryant struck out Mike Barbati looking. 

The Blue Sox chased Machado and put the game away when they scored four times in the bottom of the fourth to go up 7-zip. McEvoy was hit by a pitch and Jeff Nolet drilled a single to left that skipped past Pizzano and went all the way to fence allowing McEvoy to score from first. Machado then got Rollins star Ben Hewett to ground out to Barbati but Frates followed with a line single to left that scored Nolet to make it 5-0 and ended Machado’s night. Chris Foundas came in from the bullpen and struck out Curley before allowing consecutive singles to Graham and Gath that pushed the Sox lead to 7-0. 

Hal Landers picked up a one out single in the Chiefs fifth but the inning ended when Pyburn bounced into a 5-4-3 doubleplay. 

Foundas regained some of the form that made him the ICL’s all-star closer in 2008 when he retired the Sox side in order in the bottom of the fifth. 

The Chiefs finally broke their nineteen inning scoring drought at Lexington in the sixth. McCarthy led off with a double down the left field line and he went to third on a long fly from Bercume that Frates ran down on the warning track in center. Copa’s RBI single, just inside the third base bag, scored McCarthy with the Chiefs only run. 

Lefty Matt Boleski worked an impressive sixth inning for the Chiefs, striking out the side. 

Matt O’Brien from Boston College came on to close things out for the Sox working a 1-2-3 seventh. 

Despite the score, both teams recorded seven hits and there was only one error in the game. Machado (0-2) took the loss for the Chiefs. He worked 3.1 innings, was charged with all seven runs (six earned), gave up five hits, struck out two but walked three and hit two batters. Bryant, the former Bentley righty who is now 2-0, worked six innings, striking out three and walking none while lowering his ERA to 0.57 on the season. 

The Chiefs will send Mike DiCato (3-1) to the hill on Tuesday night, weather permitting, when they host the Medford Americans at Tufts University at 6:00 PM.