Andre Chiefs

Medford, MA-  The Lexington Dynasty continues.

The 1990's was the decade of the dominating Chiefs. The initial decade of the 2000's is firmly in the camp of the Lexington Blue Sox.

Rick DeAngelis' "Big Blue Army" made sure of that, when for the third consecutive summer and the sixth time in the last eight years, the ICL's championship series concluded with the Blue Sox once again being fitted for the crown.

The Chiefs playoff run ended late Sunday afternoon at Tufts University when the Sox shook off a 1-0 series defecit to take three straight games, the clincher being an 8-1 win.

The Blue Sox came to play early as they took a 1-0 lead off Chiefs starter and loser Ryan McNeill in the first inning. Red hot Peter Frates got things going when he led off and lined a single to right. McNeill uncorked a wild pitch and Frates took second. Things got worse for the Chiefs when Ross Curley dropped a bunt that McNeill threw late to first, putting runners on the corners with no outs. A Dan Graham fielders choice scored Frates with the first run. McNeill then hit Sean McElroy with a pitch and the Chiefs escaped the inning pretty cheaply when Steve Gath bounced into a 6-4-3 doubleplay.

Lexington's starter Drew Brzozowski set the Chiefs down in order in the bottom of the first inning. 

The Sox added an unearned run in the top of the second. Tom Haugh reached with one out when second baseman Mike Baillargeon bobbled his grounder. Jeff Nolet followed and delivered Haugh with a long gap shot double to make it 2-0.

Bailargeon opened the Chiefs second and reached second base when Anthony Santos misplayed his pop-up to short right field. Mike Andre stayed red hot and lined a single to right-center scoring Baillargeon to cut the lead to 2-1. The Chiefs looked to be in serious business when Dario Pizzano driilled Brzozowski's next picth into the left-center field gap for a double that sent Andre to third. The Chiefs could not put the tying accross as Andre was thrown out at the plate on Bob McCarthy's grounder and Brzozowski struck out Hal Landers to end the threat.

Nothing doing for either club in the third and the Sox made a big push toward the championship when they came up with four runs in the top of the fourth to take a 6-1 lead. Haugh walked and consecutive doubles from Nolet and Santos moved the margin to 4-1. After Frates grounded out to Brian Macrina at first, Curley delivered a fielder's choice RBI when he grounded to Baillargeon at second and Santos beat his throw home to make it 5-1. Chris Foundas came on in relief of McNeill and he hit Graham with a pitch. It went to 6-1 when the Chiefs could not convert on a McElroy potential double play ball.

Brzozowski set the Chiefs down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the fourth. The Sox put it out of reach when they picked up a couple more runs off Foundas in the top of the fifth on a walk to Nolet, singles from Frates and McElroy sandwiched around a Graham double down the right field line.

A Macrina two out single was all the Chiefs could come up with in the bottom of the fifth and left-hander Connor Bishop came on to get the Sox side in order in the top of the sixth. 

Brzozowski worked another three up, three down inning in the Chiefs sixth.

Bishop, by a wide margin the Chiefs most effective pitcher of the day, retired the Blue Sox side in order again in the top of the seventh.

Mike Barbati, who had a pinch hit single on Friday, batted for Justin Crisafulli and Brzozowski got the first out of the seventh when he caught him looking. Pizzano then flied to McEvoy in left for the second out. McCarthy briefly put the Sox celebration on hold when he singled to left but the Sox put away another championship when pinch-hitter Matt Boleski flew to Graham in right to end the game.

CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES NOTES-COMING SOON

Medford, MA- The Lexington Blue Sox took a 2-1 series lead with a 4-2 win over the Chiefs at steamy Tufts University on Saturday afternoon. 

The Best of Five series continues on Sunday at Tufts when Game Four will be played at 1:30 PM. If the Chiefs force a Game Five, it will be played in Lexington on Monday night. 

The Chiefs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Blue Sox starter Matt Karis. Mike Andre drove home Jeff Bercume, who had reached on fielder’s choice, with a RBI single. 

The Blue Sox answered and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the second inning when Chiefs starter Dylan Ellis surrendered four singles to Matt McEvoy, Tom Haugh, Anthony Santos and Peter Frates.  

The Sox lead went to 4-1 in the fourth inning when Haugh walked, Poling reached on an infield single and Ellis threw Santos’ sacrifice bunt attempt into right field allowing Haugh to score. Santos came around to score on a fielder’s choice. 

The Chiefs closed the gap to 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth and threatened for mush more. Macrina drew a walk and Bercume reached on a two base error putting runners on second and third with nobody out. Mike Baillargeon then grounded to Steve Gath at shortstop who caught Bercume trying to go to third as Macrina scored on the play. Andre followed with a line single to right, his second of the game, sending Baillargeon to second. Justin Crisafulli then hit a screaming liner that was bound for the left field corner. Sox third baseman Ross Curley came up with the play of the game when he leaped to make an outstanding grab and recovered in time to double Baillargeon off second to end the inning. 

Matt O’Brien worked a scoreless sixth for the Blue Sox and Jesse Santos picked up the save in the seventh. 

Ellis went the distance for the Chiefs allowing three earned runs and eight hits while striking out five. Karis picked up the win giving up two runs on six hits and striking out three in his five innings of work.  

The Blue Sox will send Drew Brozowski to the mound in Sunday’s Game Four while the Chiefs are expected to counter with Ryan McNeill.

By Bruce Hack
Intercity Baseball League Media Relations Director

Lexington, MA – Lexington came out swinging and tied the finals at 1-1 with a 5-2 win over the Chiefs at Lexington High School Friday night. The teams move to Medford for Saturday and Sunday. Both games are scheduled for 1:30 p.m. starts at Tufts University’s Huskins Field.

The Blue Sox set the tone early as Pete Frates led off with a double in the first. Ross Curley sacrificed him to third and a walk to Dan Graham put runners on the corners. Sean McElroy bounced a single through the left side and it was 1-0 Sox four batters into the game. Steve Gath singled to center to score Graham and the Sox were up 2-0.

In game two it was Lexington’s pitching and defense that made the plays and made big ones when they were needed. The Chiefs had runners at first and second on back-to-back singles by Mike Andre and Justin Crisafulli, with one out in the second. Dario Pizzano lofted a fly ball down the left field line. Sox left fielder Matt McEvoy made a sliding catch on the line and then popped up and fired a throw to second baseman Anthony Santos, who made like a first baseman and stretched out to make the catch and double up Andre.

In the fourth Andre loaded the bases on a single by Jeff Bercume and two hit batters, Mike Baillargeon and Crisafulli with one out. Pizzano this time hit a ground ball to third which Curley fielded, stepped on the bag and fired across the diamond to nail Pizzano at first for the inning-ending double play.

Steve Bodnar was the beneficiary of the outstanding defense as he won his second game of the postseason. In a complete game effort, he scattered six hits, gave up two unearned runs, walked one and struck out five. His five K’s came at crucial times as he struck out Mike Andre in the fourth with two on and no outs and then struck out Baillargeon with two on and no outs in the sixth.

It was the four and five hitters, McElroy and Gath, that came through again for the Blue Sox in the fifth. Frates beat out a leadoff bunt for a single and Curley then beat out a bunt for a base hit and the Sox had runners at first and second with no outs. Frates moved to third on Graham’s fly ball to left to put runners at the corners. With Curly going, McElroy grounded out to short with Frates scoring the third run. Curley then scored on Gath’s second single to center and it was 4-0 Lexington.

The Sox final run came in the sixth inning when Santos doubled to right with two outs. He scored on Frates single to left giving Lexington a 5-0 lead.

The Chiefs finally got on the board in the seventh when it took advantage of a Lexington error.
Bodnar retired the first two batters and then Mike Barbati got a pinch-hit single through the right side. Brendan Pyburn reached when Santos dropped his fly ball in shallow right and Barbati moved to third. Both runners came home on Brian Macrina’s double to left center. Bodnar got the final out a soft line drive to Santos.

Dan Lozeau, who was 0-1 against Lexington in the regular season, fared a little better tonight. pitching six innings, giving up nine hits, five runs, walking three and striking out two.

From the stat sheet – Pete Frates continues his hot streak in the postseason for Lexington. He is now hitting .563 with seven runs scored, three RBI and three doubles and a home run...... Jeff Bercume is hitting .500 for the Chiefs with four runs and three RBI. He also has two doubles, a triple and a home run. ......Mike Andre is hitting .364 and leads all players in the postseason with two home runs and seven RBI..........Steve Bodnar went 2-0 with 0.50 ERA in 14 innings with 14 K’s in two playoff starts. .......Dan Lozeau is now 2-1 in three games and has pitched 11 innings in the postseason.

Lexington, MA- Mike DiCato tossed a six-hit shutout to lead the Chiefs past the Lexington Blue Sox 6-0 in Game One of Intercity League’s best of five Championship Series on Thursday night in Lexington. For the Chiefs it was their fourth consecutive playoff win, having taken three straight from the Testa Corp. Bombers after dropping the first game of that semi-final series. 

Blue Sox starter Tim Bryant set the Chiefs down in order in the top of the first inning when he struck out Brendan Pyburn, got Brian Macrina on a groundout and Jeff Bercume on an outfield fly. DiCato surrendered a leadoff single to Pete Frates to open the home half of the first but he was quickly erased when Ross Curley bounced into a 6-4-3 doubleplay. 

Mike Andre got things started for the Chiefs when he singled down the right field line with one out in the second. Justin Crisafulli then singled to left and rookie Dario Pizzano laced a double into the left-centerfield gap that scored Andre to give the Chiefs a 1-0 lead. Bryant stranded Crisafulli and Pizzano when he got both Bob McCarthy and Hal Landers to both flyout. 

The Blue Sox had their biggest scoring threat in the bottom of the second inning. Matt McEvoy led off with a single and DiCato got the first out when Steve Gath popped to Baillargeon. Sean McElroy then singled to right and went to second on the throw attempting to get McEvoy going to third. Tom Haugh then bounced back to DiCato for the second out of the inning with runners forced to hold. Eric Poling was then hit by a pitch that loaded the bases. DiCato kept the Chiefs in the lead when he struck out Anthony Santos to end the inning. 

The Chiefs lead went to 4-0 in the top of the third inning. It started quietly enough when Pyburn grounded to Haugh at first base for the first out. Macrina then hit a sinking soft liner to Gath at short who could not come up with the ball, which was scored an error. Bercume then picked up some chalk when he drilled a double just inside the first base bag that sent Macrina to third. Baillargeon then came up big when he delivered a two RBI single to center giving the Chiefs a 3-0 lead and took second on the throw to the plate. Bryant got Andre to fly out to Frates in center for the second out of the inning before Criasfulli plated Baillargeon with a RBI single to left and 4-0 lead. 

Lexington got two more aboard (Graham single, McEvoy HBP) after two were out in the bottom of the third but DiCato ended another Sox threat with an inning ending strikeout, getting Gath swinging, to send the game to the fourth inning. 

Bryant had his strongest inning in the fourth, aided by his defense. McCarthy led off and hit a hard grounder over the third base bag but was gunned down by McEvoy trying to stretch it to a double. Bryant responed and got Landers on a pop-up and Pyburn on a grounder to end inning. 

DiCato remained tough and set the Blue Sox down in order in the bottom of the fourth including strikeouts of Haugh and Poling. 

The Chiefs increased their lead to 6-0 in the top of the fifth. Bercume dropped a perfect bunt single. Bryant got Baillargeon to line to right for the first out. With Andre at the plate, Bercume stole second and the former Merrimack captains gave the Chiefs a five run lead when Andre lined a single to left that scored Bercume. Crisafulli followed with his third straight hit, a double down the left field line that sent Andre to third. Pizzano then picked up his second hit and RBI of the night when he greeted reliever Sam Steed with another single that scored Andre with the sixth Chiefs run. 

DiCato gave up a one out single to Frates in the bottom of the fifth before Curley grounded into another 6-4-3 doubleplay. 

Landers opened the Chiefs sixth with an infield single between third and short and Pyburn promptly sacrificed him to second. Steed kept it a 6-0 lead when he got Macrina on a groundout and Bercume swinging ending the inning. 

DiCato followed two groundouts to Baillargeon by striking out Gath to end the sixth. It was the fourth straight inning that DiCato ended with a strikeout. 

Baillargeon tripled to center open the Chiefs seventh but Steed left him there when he struck out Andre and Crisafulli and got Pizzano on a grounder to Curley at third. 

McElroy led off the Sox seventh with a single to right and he was forced at second when Haugh grounded to Baillargeon. Pinch hitter Jeff Nolet then grounded out to Andre at third for the second out and DiCato ended things when he got Santos on fly to Landers in right to end the game. 

DiCato struck out five and did not issue a walk as he recorded the first playoff win of his ICL career. 

Game Two is scheduled for Lexington High School on Friday at 8:00 PM.