Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA- The Chiefs sent 14 men to the plate in a nine run sixth inning to come from behind to beat the Mooney Dental Tanners 10-3 at Tufts University on Thursday night.

This looked as if it was going to be the Tanners night through the first five and one half innings before Mike Barbati turned the tide when he delivered the key hit, a one out, bases loaded, two RBI double, that gave the Chiefs the lead at 3-2. Barbati’s double opened the floodgates and gave Mike DiCato (4-0), his fourth straight win.

Both teams threatened in the first inning but neither could score. The Tanners had men on first and second (single, error) but Chiefs starter Mike DiCato struck out the side. The Chiefs loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the inning on a single from Peter Copa, a walk to Justin Crisafulli, and an infield single from Tim Dempsey, in his first at bat as a Chief. Tanners’ starter Dan Blum escaped the jam when right-fielder Bryan Watkins took at least a single away from Mike Andre down the rightfield line to end the inning.

Both clubs went quietly in the second inning.

DiCato gave up consecutive one out singles in the top of the third to Carlton Lentini and Jon Bishop before pitching out of the jam by getting Watkins on a grounder to Andre at third and striking out Ryan Doyle. Bob McCarthy was hit by a Blum pitch, with one out in the bottom of the inning, and promptly stole second. Copa followed and hit an absolute bullet back to Blum, who made the grab and easily doubled McCarthy off second, ending the inning.

The Tanners used some DiCato wildness and a couple of well placed hits to grab a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth. Keegan DeNapoli and Nick Dettore both drew free passes to begin the inning. A nice play by shortstop Tony Deshler got DiCato the first out when he ranged deep into the hole and made a nice play on Mike Baldino’s grounder and threw to second to force Dettore on a bang-bang play. Nick Ruocco followed and singled to left scoring DeNapoli. Joe Galli then singled to deep short scoring Baldino. The Chiefs averted further trouble when Lentini bounced into a 1-6-3 doubleplay.

The Chiefs offensive frustration continued into the bottom of the fourth. Crisafulli was hit by a Blum pitch and Dempsey followed with drive to deep right, into a stiff wind, that Watkins reeled in at the wall. After Andre flew to center for the second out, Deshler blooped a single to right. Blum ended the Chiefs threat when he struck out Matt Boleski swinging sending the game to the fifth with the Tanners holding a 2-0 lead.

DiCato retired the side in order in the top of the fifth and the Chiefs cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning. Hal Landers drew a one out walk, stole second, and came around to score on Copa’s RBI single to right-center.

DiCato set the Tanners down in order again in the sixth. The stage was set for the 45 minute bottom of the inning where the Chiefs scored nine times and recorded nine hits against three Tanner pitchers. Dempsey (pictured at left) started things off and reached on another infield single. With Andre at the plate, the Tanners called for a well timed pitchout and Demspey was thrown out by Ruocco attempting to steal second. Andre got things started right up again when he lined a single to right and rookie Paul Yanakopulos pinch ran for him. Deshler drew a walk and Boleski followed with a line single to right loading the bases. Barbati took the count full before drilling a long double to the right-center field gap scoring Yanakopulos and Deshler and putting the Chiefs in front at 3-2. Colby lefty Brady Hesslein then came on in relief of Blum. Landers then hit a grounder to Lentini at second and the sliding Boleski beat his throw home to make it 4-2. McCarthy then lined a single to center scoring Barbati and Landers and jumping the lead to 6-2. Copa was next and he singled scoring Landers making it 7-2. Kevin Georgette replaced Hesslein and he walked Crisafulli and Eric Rosenberg pinch ran for him. Dempsey delivered his third hit of his Chiefs debut, a single to right-center that scored McCarthy, as the lead grew to 8-2. Yanakopulos made his first career ICL at bat a productive one when he lofted a deep sacrifice fly to right that plated Copa. Consecutive singles from Deshler (infield, broken bat) scoring Rosenberg, and Boleski, scoring Dempsey, accounted for the final two runs. The marathon inning finally ended when ironically Barbati flew to left.

Rob Machado relieved DiCato to start the seventh and allowed an unearned run while recording two strikeouts.

DiCato went six innings to record the win. He allowed six hits and struck out seven.

Chiefs Notebook….Former St. John’s Prep and University of Michigan lefty Jeff DeCarlo is scheduled to get the start when the Chiefs visit the Arlington Trojans at Summer St. Field on Friday at 7:00 PM…. Brendan Pyburn, Brian Macrina, Mike Gedman and Matt Anderson were all out of the lineup on Thursday…..

Lexington, MA- Matt Karis raised his record to 4-0 on the season with complete game 4-1 win over the Chiefs in Lexington on Wednesday night. The right-hander scattered seven hits and struck out seven. Karis is now 13-0-1 in 14 career ICL decisions dating back to June 2nd of last season.

Karis retired the side in order in the top of the first and Chiefs starter Dylan Ellis escaped a major league jam in the bottom of the inning. Pete Frates and Ross Curley led the inning off with consecutive singles. With runners on the corners, Steve Gath hit a bullet at Mike Andre at third base for the first out. Ellis then struck out cleanup man Danny Graham for out number two before walking Matt McEvoy to load the bases. The southpaw got out of the inning when he got Tommy Haugh on a comebacker to retire the side.

Crisafulli was hit by a Karis pitch with two away in the second but he got Matt Anderson to bounce out to end the inning.

The Blue Sox got all of their runs in the bottom of the second. John Seed led off and reached on an error when Andre threw low to first. Chas Agrillo followed with a single to right that sent Seed to third. Jim Hughes moved Agrillo up to second with a sacrifice bunt with Seed holding at third. The Chiefs elected to intentionally walk Frates and Curley made that move backfire when he drilled a long bases clearing double into the left field corner to give the Sox a 3-0 lead. Gath followed with another single to right with Curley taking third. Graham increased the Lexington lead to 4-0 when he lofted a long sacrifice fly to right easily scoring Curley.

The Chiefs back answered with their only run of the night in the top of the third. Tony Deshler singled to left-center leading off the inning. Karis then struck out Mike Barbati and Hal Landers in succession before back to back singles by Bob McCarthy and Mike Gedman cut the Sox lead to 4-1. Karis recorded his third strikeout of the inning when he got Peter Copa swinging to end the frame as well as the scoring for the evening.

Ellis settled down nicely and allowed just two more hits, a Hughes single leading off the fourth and a Graham bunt single in the fifth, before giving way to Isaac Oakley in the 6th.

Karis pitched out of trouble in the fifth when he issued a one out walk to Barbati and Landers followed with a single. He kept the Chiefs off the board when McCarthy grounded sharply to Curley at third and Gedman flew to Graham in right.

The Chiefs threatened once again in the sixth. Copa drew a leadoff walk but was forced at second on Andre's fielder's choice. Crisafulli then lined a ground rule double to left sending Andre to third. Karis left both runners stranded when he struck out Anderson and Deshler to end the inning.

Oakley, coming off some rest following an elbow strain, made his first appearance of the season and retired both batters he faced to begin the sixth. Lefty Tim Dunphy came out of the pen to get Frates to fly deep to right to end the inning.

Karis got pinch-hitter Matt Boleski to foul out to begin the 7th before Landers followed with a single up the middle. That was as far as Landers got as Karis struck out McCarthy and got Gedman on a grounder to second to end the game.

The Chiefs run in the third was the first run that Karis (0.25 ERA) has allowed in 28 innings so far this season. The Gettysburg righty has only surrendered nine earned runs in his 93 career ICL innings, including the 2009 post season.

Ellis, who was 5-0 entering the game, suffered his first loss of the season. He allowed seven hits, three earned runs and struck out three.

The Blue Sox ,who raised their record to 11-4, are off until Friday.

The Chiefs, now 12-4-1, will send righty Mike DiCato to the mound when they return home on Thursday to meet the Mooney Dental Tanners at Tufts University at 6:00 PM.

Quebec City- Mike Baillargeon made his first professional hit in the Cam-Am League a memorable one. The Chiefs infielder drilled a seventh inning solo home run in the Worcester Tornadoes 10-4 loss to the Quebec Les Capitales in front of 2,267 fans on Sunday at Municipal Stadium.

Baillargeon, who had five homers for the Chiefs so far this season including a two-run blast in his last at bat in Watertown on Tuesday night, started for the Tornadoes at shortstop on Sunday. The former Assumption star, who signed with Worcester on Wednesday, has gone 1 for 6 in his first three games.

Medford- His first hit came in 1994 on a rainy night at Alumni Stadium in Lowell when he was a shy 18 year old rookie a few days removed from his Medford High graduation.

His 500th came via a RBI double in the first inning of Thursday’s 4-1 win (see game story below) against the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University.

In his almost fifteen Chiefs seasons in between, Justin Crisafulli established himself as one the greatest and most feared Chiefs and ICL hitters of all time.
 
Crisafulli reached the lofty ICL 500 hit plateau with a RBI double to the right-centerfield gap and now trails only the retired Mike Langston (538), on the Chiefs all time hit list.

Along the way, Justin has ripped 87 home runs and knocked in 384 runs. Add to those impressive totals the fact that he has a career .342 batting average, it becomes obvious to see why he is considered among one of the Intercity League's all time best. And for Chiefs fans the good news is that he is still going strong and he will be atop every Chiefs batting record before he hangs up the spikes and his number 33 is hung up and retired. 

To put Crisafulli’s longevity and career accomplishment’s into focus, on the night he recorded his first hit, veteran third baseman Mike Andre, who batted just before Crisafulli, was the seven year old Chiefs bat-boy. Peter Copa, who scored on last night’s double, was a six year old first-grader. Major League Baseball players had just voted to cancel the remainder of the 1994 season and the California Highway Patrol was chasing O.J. Simpson’s Ford Bronco through the streets of Los Angeles.

Crisafulli emerged as a star at Medford High School in the early 1990's. His baseball ability was not limited to the plate as he was considered one of the state's top high school pitchers of that era. In fact, he was actually selected by the Boston Red Sox as a pitcher in the 17th round of the 1995 major league draft. He opted to attend Western Arizona Junior College instead. That decision rewarded him with a trip to the JUCO World Series. Following his career in Arizona, Crisafulli accepted a baseball scholarship to Divison II powerhouse Central Missouri State and once again was playing for post season honors, this time in the D-2 World Series.

After one of the most incredible individual ICL season's of all time, when he hit a remarkable .515 (70 for 136) with 13 homers and 57 RBI's, leading the Chiefs to a 36-6 record and another championship, Justin signed with the Cleveland Indians on the day the 1997 ICL season ended.

At 34, Justin can still put fear into ICL pitchers. Although his home runs totals have decreased, along with the rest of the ICL, since the league's wood bat era began in 2002, he still can take it out of the yard at anytime.

A "True Chief" in every sense of the term, Crisafulli is the elder statesman of the Chiefs franchise.He has played a major part of four ICL championships and seven regular season flags. When his playing days are over, he will be remembered as not only one of the greatest hitter's in ICL history, but also one of the most classiest guys to ever to wear the Chiefs uniform.

 Justin Crisafulli's Road to 500 Chiefs Hits

*-2010 thru first 16 games

Medford, MA- Justin Crisafulli recorded his 500th career hit, (see seperate story) a first inning RBI double, and the Chiefs made four first inning runs stand up, in a 4-1 win over the Arlington Trojans at Tufts University.

Mike DiCato (3-0) threw a neat four hitter, in a game that took only one hour and eighteen minutes to complete. Along with Crisafulli’s double, Hal Landers and Matt Boleski had first inning two-base hits and Peter Copa, Bob McCarthy, Mike Andre, and Mike Barbati added singles.

Trojans’ starter Mike Griffin (1-2) settled in nicely after the rocky first inning and threw shutout ball the rest of the way.

Arlington rookie Greg Wilson broke up DiCato’s shutout bid with a solo homer in the sixth.

DiCato, struck out four and needed only 74 pitches to complete his night's work. The former UMass-Amherst and Malden Catholic standout was aided by some outstanding defense as his infield mates turend three doubleplays. The final out of the game was made on a spectacular play by Chiefs shortstop Tony Deshler.

The Chiefs, now 12-3-2, will enjoy the traditional July 4th Break and return to action next Wednesday when they travel to Lexington to meet the Blue Sox at 8:00 PM.